Archaeologists have reportedly found fossils of ancient whales that date back 42.56 million years. Different from whales that usually live in the sea, this 13-foot long whale can also walk on land. Paleontologists themselves have recorded the discovery of this whale's ancestor, whose skeleton was found in Peru in 2011. The findings are published in a new study published in the journal Current Biology.
This whale species is named as Peregocetus pacificus which means 'wandering whale that reaches the Pacific' in Latin. This new discovery reverses scientists' understanding of how these creatures evolved and spread around the world millions of years ago. Seeing this, study author Olivier Lambert made his comment.
"This is the first indisputable record of a four-legged whale skeleton for the entire Pacific Ocean," he said, launching Ancient Archeology.
This ancient whale is claimed to be able to walk and swim. Peregocetus is known to have four legs, with small nails on the tips of the fingers and toes. Together with the orientation of the hipbones and legs, suggest that this whale ancestor was able to maneuver on land. However, its webbed tail and feet suggest that Peregocetus could also swim well, like modern beavers.
The tailbone of Peregocetus looked similar to that of an otter, suggesting that limbs also play a large role in swimming. Unfortunately, the bone from the tip of Peregocetus' tail was missing, so researchers couldn't find out whether he had the coincidence of a well-developed tail like that of modern whales for swimming.
However, scientists believe that today's large fin whales evolved from a small four-legged ancestor in South Asia more than 50 million years ago. Fossils of one of the oldest four-legged whales that lived 53 million years ago were found in India.
These ancient creatures most likely migrated westward from Asia to Africa and then swam across the Atlantic until they reached the shores of America.