J. G. M. Hans Thewissen 
The Walking Whales [EPUB ebook] 
From Land to Water in Eight Million Years

Hans Thewissen, a leading researcher in the field of whale paleontology and anatomy, gives a sweeping first-person account of the discoveries that brought to light the early fossil record of whales. As evidenced in the record, whales evolved from herbivorous forest-dwelling ancestors that resembled tiny deer to carnivorous monsters stalking lakes and rivers and to serpentlike denizens of the coast.


Thewissen reports on his discoveries in the wilds of India and Pakistan, weaving a narrative that reveals the day-to-day adventures of fossil collection, enriching it with local flavors from South Asian culture and society. The reader senses the excitement of the digs as well as the rigors faced by scientific researchers, for whom each new insight gives rise to even more questions, and for whom at times the logistics of just staying alive may trump all science.


In his search for an understanding of how modern whales live their lives, Thewissen also journeys to Japan and Alaska to study whales and wild dolphins. He finds answers to his questions about fossils by studying the anatomy of otters and porpoises and examining whale embryos under the microscope. In the book’s final chapter, Thewissen argues for approaching whale evolution with the most powerful tools we have and for combining all the fields of science in pursuit of knowledge.

Mục lục

1. A Wasted Dig

Fossils and War

A Whale Ear


2. Fish, Mammal, or Dinosaur?

The King Lizard of Cape Cod

Basilosaurid Whales*

Basilosaurids and Evolution


3. A Whale with Legs

The Black and White Hills

A Walking Whale


4. Learning to Swim

Meeting the Killer Whale

From Dog-Paddle to Torpedo

Ambulocetid Whales*

Ambulocetus and Evolution


5. When the Mountains Grew

The High Himalayas

Kidnapping in the Hills

Indian Whales


6. Passage to India

Stranded in Delhi

Whales in the Desert

A 150-Pound Skull


7. A Trip to the Beach

The Outer Banks

A Fossilized Coast


8. The Otter Whale

The Whale with No Hands

Remingtonocetid Whales*

Building a Beast out of Bones


9. The Ocean Is a Desert

Forensic Paleontology

Drinking and Peeing

Fossilized Drinking Behavior

Walking with Ambulocetus


10. The Skeleton Puzzle

If Looks Could Kill

How Many Bones Make a Skeleton?

Finding Whales’ Sisters


11. The River Whales

Hearing in Whales

Pakicetid Whales*

September 11, 2001


12. Whales Conquer the World

A Molecular SINE

The Black Whale

Protocetid Whales*

Protocetids and History


13. From Embryos to Evolution

A Dolphin with Legs 

The Marine Park at Taiji 

Shedding Limbs 

Whaling in Taiji

 

14. Before Whales 

The Widow’s Fossils 

The Ancestors of Whales 

Indohyus* 

A Trust for Fossils 


15. The Way Forward 

The Big Question 

Tooth Development 

Baleen as Teeth 


Notes 

Index 

*These six headings summarize the biology of the six fossil groups that form the transition between whales and their terrestrial ancestors. Their relationships to each other and to the living families of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are given in figure 66.

Giới thiệu về tác giả

J. G. M. ‘Hans’ Thewissen is Ingalls-Brown Endowed Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Northeast Ohio Medical University. His main research interest is the study of whales, particularly their adaptations to life in water and their origin as land mammals. He discovered in 1994 the skeleton of the first-known whale that could walk on land (Ambulocetus), and he has led more than ten field expeditions each to Pakistan and India, collecting fossil whales. He is coeditor of Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (2002), Emergence of Whales (1998), and Sensory Evolution on the Threshold (UC Press, 2008).