Page 141 - The Evolution Impasse 2

Origin of Whales 139

ce tes, de spite the in a bil i ty to iden ti fy Ambulocetus were re lat ed to whales
any spe cies in the ac tu al lin e age, is in any way. They are mere ly po ten -
that known mes o ny chids and ar chae o - tial an ces tors which ev o lu tion ists,
ce tes have some sim i lar i ties. These obliged to find a ter res tri al an ces tor
sim i lar i ties, how e ver, are not suf fi cient
for ma rine mam mals as re quired by
to make the case for an ces try, es pe cial -
their the o ry, have sug gest ed on the
ly in light of the vast dif fer en ces. The
ba sis of var i ous lim it ed sim i lar i ties.
sub jec tive na ture of such com par i sons
No ev i dence shows that these crea -
is ev i dent from the fact so many groups
tures were re lat ed to the ma rine
of mam mals and even rep tiles have
mam mals that emerge in the fos sil
been sug gest ed as an ces tral to
record in a ge o log i cal pe ri od very
whales. 154
soon aft er..
Pakicetus is fol lowed in the ev o lu -
A num ber of true ma rine mam -
tion a ry tree by Ambulocetus na tans.
mals are list ed in the fic ti tious ev o lu -
This fos sil, first an nounced in an ar -
tion a ry tree aft er Pakicetus and
ti cle pub lished in Science mag a zine
Ambulocetus: Archaeocetes ("an cient
in 1994, is a ter res tri al an i mal that
whale") spe cies such as Procetus and
ev o lu tion ists have at tempt ed to
Rhodcetus. These crea tures are ex -
force in to a whale mould.
tinct mam mals that gen u ine ly did
The name Ambulocetus na tans is a
live in wa ter, as you shall see in sub -
com bi na tion of the Latin words am -
se quent sec tions. However, there are
bu lare (to walk), ce tus (whale) and
con sid er a ble an a tom i cal dif fer en ces
na tans (swim ming), and thus means
be tween Pakicetus and Ambulocetus
"a swim ming and walk ing whale."
and these ma rine an i mals:
Obviously, this an i mal walk ed, be -
● In Ambulocetus, a four-foot ed land
cause like all ter res tri al mam mals, it
mam mal, the back bone ends in the pel vic
had four feet, and even wide claws
bone, from which pow er ful leg bones ex -
on its feet and paws on its hind legs.
tend. This is the typ i cal anat o my for land
Apart from ev o lu tion ist pre con cep -
mam mals. In whales, on the oth er hand,
tions, how e ver, there is ab so lute ly
the back bone con tin ues right down to the
no foun da tion, for the idea that the
tail and there is no pel vic bone at all.
an i mal swam in wa ter or that it lived
Basilosaurus, thought to have lived up to
both on land and in wa ter, as hip pos
10 mil lion years aft er Ambulocetus, pos -
and al li ga tors do. In fact, there is no
sess es just such an anat o my—in oth er
ev i dence that ei ther Pakicetus or
words, it is a typ i cal whale. There is no in -
Harun Yahya - Adnan Oktar