Quote:
Originally Posted by Dynasty
Whales evolved from land animals. Do we get to count these distant land-dwelling ancestors as whales?
Pakicetid
If these guys count, the # goes way up.
BTW, the first time I learned whales evolved from land animals, it blew my mind.
I was going to bring something up along these lines.
If whales and other sea animals dive to avoid the surface during electrical storms, and this tendency is a product of natural selection, then it's possible that many older whale ancestors didn't have this safety mechanism. I guess the problem comes with how long ago this was and whether we would classify them as whales.