From Land to Water: the Origin of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises

2009/04/15 by J. G. M. Thewissen, Lisa Noelle Cooper, John C. George +1 · 5 citations
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Marine animal studies overview #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s12052-009-0135-2

openalex publication_date 2009/04/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are an order of mammals that originated about 50 million years ago in the Eocene epoch. Even though all modern cetaceans are obligate aquatic mammals, early cetaceans were amphibious, and their ancestors were terrestrial artiodactyls, similar to small deer. The transition from land to water is documented by a series of intermediate fossils, many of which are known from India and Pakistan. We review raoellid artiodactyls, as well as the earliest families of cetaceans: pakicetids, ambulocetids, remingtonocetids, protocetids, and basilosaurids. We focus on the evolution of cetacean organ systems, as these document the transition from land to water in detail.

Citations

• Whales originated from aquatic artiodactyls in the Eocene epoch of India
• Sound transmission in archaic and modern whales: Anatomical adaptations for underwater hearing
• Transitions from Drag-based to Lift-based Propulsion in Mammalian Swimming
• Eocene and Oligocene sirenians (Mammalia) from Kachchh, India
• The Early Radiations of Cetacea (Mammalia): Evolutionary Pattern and Developmental Correlations
• Locomotor evolution in the earliest cetaceans: functional model, modern analogues, and paleontological evidence

Cited by

• A new skull of early cetacean Remingtonocetus harudiensis from the Eocene of Kutch Basin, India
• Convergence and constraint in the cranial evolution of mosasaurid reptiles and early cetaceans
• Fin [wikipedia]
• Pakicetidae [wikipedia]
• Pakicetus [wikipedia]