linkedin post 2020-09-12 03:25:08
BLUE WHALE SKULL 3D MODEL https://lnkd.in/d7d8tRR View in LinkedIn
linkedin post 2020-09-12 03:22:34
FRAGMENT FROM NATURE explores the remarkable story of the largest and biggest-brained creatures on earth, who after accomplishing the monumental transition from the water to land, returned to the sea: namely the whales. This involved massive changes in their reproduction, anatomy, metabolism, physiology, social life, and feeding behavior. It is a stunning story of the plasticity of organisms to evolve, and then reverse the evolutionary step. View in LinkedIn
linkedin post 2020-09-12 03:47:01
TRANSITIONAL WHALES. "Protocetidae are middle Eocene (49–37 Ma) archaeocete predators ancestral to later whales. They are found in marine sedimentary rocks, but retain four legs and were not yet fully aquatic. Protocetids have been interpreted as amphibious, feeding in the sea but returning to land to rest." http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0004366 View in LinkedIn
linkedin post 2020-09-12 03:43:34
TRANSITIONAL FOSSILS. “Discovery of a near-term fetus positioned for head-first delivery provides important evidence that early protocetid whales gave birth on land. This is consistent with skeletal morphology enabling Maiacetus to support its weight on land and corroborates previous ideas that protocetids were amphibious. Specimens this complete are virtual ‘Rosetta stones’ providing insight into functional capabilities and life history of extinct animals that cannot be gained any other way.” https://lnkd.in/dKz_vTv View in LinkedIn
linkedin post 2020-09-12 03:42:51
TRANSITIONAL FOSSILS. “Discovery of a near-term fetus positioned for head-first delivery provides important evidence that early protocetid whales gave birth on land. This is consistent with skeletal morphology enabling Maiacetus to support its weight on land and corroborates previous ideas that protocetids were amphibious. Specimens this complete are virtual ‘Rosetta stones’ providing insight into functional capabilities and life history of extinct animals that cannot be gained any other way.” https://lnkd.in/dKz_vTv View in LinkedIn
linkedin post 2020-09-12 03:39:51
EARLY CETACEANS. "Their features became adapted for living in the marine environment. Major anatomical changes include streamlining of the body, the migration of the nasal openings towards the top of the cranium, the shrinking and eventual disappearance of the hind limbs, the modification of the forelimbs into flippers, and the growth of flukes on the tail." http://www.crystalinks.com/fossilwhales.html View in LinkedIn
linkedin post 2020-09-13 03:30:34
OLFACTORY BULB. "We provide the whole-genome sequence of a mysticete and show that mysticetes lack the dorsal domain of the OB, an area known to induce innate avoidance behavior against odors of predators and spoiled foods. Genomic and fossil data suggest that mysticetes lost the dorsal domain of the OB before the Odontoceti-Mysticeti split. Furthermore, we found that all modern cetaceans are revealed to have lost the functional taste receptors." (OB = olfactory bulb). https://lnkd.in/dcqHGKG View in LinkedIn
linkedin post 2020-09-13 03:29:05
SENSORY LOSS. "While olfaction is one of the most important senses in most terrestrial mammals, it is absent in modern toothed whales (Odontoceti, Cetacea). Furthermore, behavioral evidence suggests that gustation is very limited. In contrast, their aquatic sistergroup, baleen whales (Mysticeti) retain small but functional olfactory organs, and nothing is known about their gustation.' https://lnkd.in/dcqHGKG View in LinkedIn