Fossil foetal (proto-)whale
Quite a few of the bloggers at ScienceBlogs have been writing about an exciting new fossil find: a newly discovered fossil ancestor of whales. The exciting thing here is that the fossil contains the remains of foetal whales. Here's the University of Michigan podcast.
The fossil confirms that Maiacetus inuus was amphibious, or at least gave birth on land, as the foetus is oriented to emerge head-first (clearly not adaptive for aquatic birth, and something not seen in present-day cetaceans).
Read the bloggers at
Read the paper at PLoS ONE (freely available)
Stay Informed
When you subscribe to the blog, we will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.
Comments