Whale evolution by Yareli Corona Avalos

Land- Dwelling Whales (Pakicetus)

yc63103 — 2025-03-13 15:43:56 UTC

A pakicetus was how a whale used to look before it evolved. They were a land-dwelling mammal. This animal roamed the earth about 50-48 million years ago. It used to live in a wetland near lakes and rivers. It had four fully functional, long legs, it also had a long snout.

Ambulocetus

yc63103 — 2025-03-14 15:47:31 UTC

An Ambulocetus used to be an animal that could walk on land but was mostly in water. This was an early stage of a whale about 48 million years ago. As you can see, it changed a lot from a land-dwelling mammal. It had long, flexible necks, front limbs with flexible wrists and fingers, powerful legs with large feet, and a long and robust tail that likely lacked tail flukes. It had this so it could survive in warm waters.

Rodhocetus

yc63103 — 2025-05-09 22:45:29 UTC

Around 46-47 million years ago these creatures were around the Earth descended from the whales. These creatures evolved from the Ambulocetus It had long, flexible necks, front limbs with flexible wrists and fingers, powerful legs with large feet, and a long and robust tail that likely lacked tail flukes. It had this so it could survive in warm waters.

Dorudon

yc63103 — 2025-05-09 23:17:56 UTC

It is a genus of extinct basilosaurid ancient whales that lived alongside Basilosaurus 41.03 to 33.9 million years ago in the Eocene. It was a small whale, with D. atrox measuring 5 metres 16 ft long and weighing 1–2.2 metric tons 1.1–2.4 short tons. Dorudon lived in warm seas worldwide and fed on small fish and mollusks. Fossils have been found along the former shorelines of the Tethys Sea in present-day Egypt and Pakistan, as well as in the United States, New Zealand, and Western Sahara.

Odontocetes

yc63103 — 2025-05-09 23:35:29 UTC

The toothed whales (also called odontocetes, systematic name Odontoceti) are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales with teeth, such as beaked and sperm whales. 73 species of toothed whales are described. They are one of two living groups of cetaceans, the other being the baleen whales (Mysticeti), which have baleen instead of teeth. The two groups are thought to have diverged around 34 million years ago (mya).