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When Whales Had Legs

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Wadi Hitan Mountains representing National Geographic Channel show Morphed: When Whales Had Legs

When Whales Hag Legs

Whales were believed to be land animals with legs before they were known to be animals of the sea. Today, there are over 80 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises

In 1859 Charles Darwin suggested that whales had evolved from large bearlike animals that swam in the sea.

The evolution of whales started around 50 million years ago.

The evolution of whales is one of the most extraordinary transformations – in less than 10 million years the whale’s ancestors completely transformed from a four legged terrestrial animal to ocean dwelling giants.

The oldest known early whale was called Pakicetus – a small furry wolf-like animal that lived in the region now known as Pakistan.

A descendant of the modern whale was the giant serpent like Basilosaurus, meaning King Lizard - measuring up to 60 feet long

Modern whales share many land-based mammalian features – they are warm blooded, breathe with their lungs, take care of their newborns and the mothers nurse their calves with milk.

The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to inhabit the earth.

The heaviest Blue Whale recorded was a female weighing in at over 190 tons.

Archaeologists dated a harpoon lodged in the blubber of a living Bowhead whale in Alaska to the 19th century. New ageing techniques also calculated another Bowhead to be over 200 years.

The Grey Whale has the longest known migrations of any animal – each whale will travel up to 20,000 km (12,500 miles) in an annual migration.

The Sperm Whale is the deepest diver going to depths of up to 3,000 m (9,850 ft). Sperm whales can stay underwater for up to 2 hours.

Hearing is the primary sense for whales and dolphins. Sounds are transmitted five times faster in water and unlike sight, it’s effective in total darkness (Gill and Burke, 2004). - In many modern whales, the leg bones are still present – unused and floating on the underside of the body.

Whales save up an energy store of blubber and do not eat for months between feeding periods – during this break they spend their time socializing, mating and learning.

The Megalodon shark, a fearsome predator to the ancient whales, weighed an incredible 48 tonnes – a gigantic version of the great white shark

Whales rest – they do this by closing off half their brain at a time. They continue to swim and rise to the surface to breathe even if they are in a deep sleep.

Whale carcasses (or whale falls) often float down into deep waters, reaching depths in excess of 1000 m. In these depths, the whale bodies serve as a major source of organic material for decades at a time- housing more than 30,000 animals.