40-Million-Year-Old 'Walking Whale' Fossil Found In Peru 102
minty3 writes "Found in the Ocucaje Desert in southern Peru, the fossils belong to a group called Achaeocetes, or ancient whales, that possess both land and sea-dwelling characteristics. Over time, the ancient land animals adapted to water environments where their legs became fin-like and their bodies began to resemble modern sea mammals like dolphins and whales."
Invertibrate Whales? (Score:5, Insightful)
They lost their spine and hind legs 5 million years later
I can see why slashdotters don't read the article if the article claims things like whales are invertebrates ;-)
Re:That's Archaeocetes! (Score:5, Insightful)
How many people have Latin spell-checking installed?
Re:That's Archaeocetes! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Dodgy Source (Score:4, Insightful)
At least that link shows an artist impression of the creatures, which is the only thing most people care about. Thanks for posting. :-)
Where are the 'feet'? (Score:1, Insightful)
That is just one problem I have with evolution and science in general. They show me a piece of a bone, tell me all about how it is a transitional fossil, then draw a pretty picture to fill in the missing parts and call it 'evidence'.
There is another word for that, it is called 'comic books'.
Nothing new. (Score:1, Insightful)
The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoceti [slashdot.org]">Wikipedia entry for this creature seems to paint a different picture than the article wants to present. This article makes it seem like this evolutionary step in whales is a new thing, but it looks like scientists have known about it for a while. The entry even has images of complete skeletons and a nice illustration.
It's kind of funny to think that animals came out of the water, wandered around a bit and decided they didn't like it so returned to the seas. At least it explains waterborne mammals.