Even-toed fingerprints on whale ancestry
Article Abstract:
Research indicates that a group of mammals called even-toed ungulates that include goats, pigs, hippos, camels and ruminants are genetically linked to a group of marine mammals called cetacea, which include whales, dolphins and porpoises. The morphological and molecular studies suggest that both groups apparently have a common ancestor they do not share with any other group of mammals. The hypothesis remains controversial because of a current dispute regarding the analytical methods for reviewing molecular sequence data.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1997
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Whale ankles and evolutionary relationships
Article Abstract:
Fragmentary Eocene astragali (ankle bones) have recently been recovered from pakicetid and ambulocetid cetaceans. The troclea resembles the partial astragalus of the Ambulocetus natans. New data on the ankle bones do not unambiguously support the predominant hypotheses of cetacean relationships. The absence of a trochleated astragalar head is against the inclusion of Cetacea in Artiodactyla, and there are also inconsistencies with the derived similarities of the dentition and basicranium of cetaceans and menonychians.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1998
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Eocene evolution of whale hearing
Article Abstract:
The evolutionary changes that took place in the sound transmission mechanism of the outer and middle ear in early whales are documented. The mechanism of these fossil whales lacks sophistication, and still retains some of the key elements that land mammals use to hear airborne sound.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 2004
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