Page 140 - The Evolution Impasse 2

138 Origin of Whales

this di lem ma, but in fact ben e fit the re la tion ship be tween Pakicetus and
the o ry of ev o lu tion not at all. fish:
The first of these fos sils is First, as National Geographic in di rect -
Pakicetus in a chus, ex tinct mam mal ly makes clear by em ploy ing the words
first dis cov ered in 1983. The find er "sub tle clues in com bi na tion," some of
of the first spec i men, Philip D. these fea tures al so ex ist in oth er land-
Gingerich and his col leagues had no dwell ing mam mals.
qualms about claim ing it to be a In ad di tion, none of the char ac ter is tics
prim i tive whale, even though they in ques tion con sti tutes ev i dence for an
had dis cov ered on ly a skull. ev o lu tion a ry re la tion ship. Most of the
However, the fos sil had not the the o ret i cal re la tion ships be tween spe -
slight est con nec tion to whales in any cies that ev o lu tion ists seek to es tab lish
shape or form. The skel e ton had a on the ba sis of an a tom i cal sim i lar i ties
four-foot ed struc ture, re sem bling are ex ceed ing ly flawed— as ev o lu tion -
ists them selves ad mit. Pakicetus is a
that of mod ern wolves. The re gion
unique spe cies with dif fer ent an a tom i -
where the fos sil was dis cov ered con -
cal fea tures in its body. Robert Carroll,
tained seams of ox i dized iron as well
an au thor i ty on in ver te brate pa le on tol -
as fos sils of such ter res tri al an i mals
o gy, states that the fam i ly of
as snails, tor tois es and croc o diles. In
Mesonychids, in which Pakicetus
oth er words, its en vi ron ment had
should be in clud ed, dis plays a com bi -
been dry land, not a ma rine bed.
na tion of pe cu liar char ac ter is tics.
So why was this quad ru ped land Prominent ev o lu tion ists such as Gould
dwell er deemed to be a prim i tive ad mit that such mo sa ic life forms can -
whale? The an swer is sup plied in not be re gard ed as in ter me di ate forms.
National Geographic mag a zine, an ev - In an article titled "The
o lu tion ist pub li ca tion: Overselling of Whale Evolution," the
Subtle clues in com bi na tion—the ar - sci ence writer Ashby L. Camp de -
range ment of cusps on the mo lar teeth, scribes the in va lid i ty of the claim
a fold ing in a bone of the mid dle ear, that the Mesonychids, of which land
and the po si tion ing of the ear bones
mam mals such as Pakicetus are a
with in the skull—are ab sent in oth er
part, are the ancestors of
land mam mals. 153
Archaeocetes, the ex tinct whales:
However, these fea tures rep re -
The rea son ev o lu tion ists are con fi dent
sent no ev i dence for con struct ing a
that mes o ny chids gave rise to ar chae o -

The Evolution Impasse II