did whales walk on earth?

Question

question; this is an ongoing thing with my hubby and i,.. i learned a long time ago that whales are mammals,.. thus they breath air and in one point in time walked on earth,.. is this true or false?

More than 50 million years ago the ancestors of whales and dolphins were four-footed land animals, not unlike large dogs. They became the sleek swimmers we recognize today during the next 15 million years, losing their hind limbs in a dramatic example of evolutionary change

Answer 1

True. (And I always say this with the usual caveats about science ... we never say something is absolutely true ... only that there is general consensus among scientists that this is what the evidence indicates at the present time.) According to the fossil and genetic evidence, yes the ancestors of whales did indeed walk on land. (Although they were of course not what we would now call 'whales').

I know this is hard for some people to imagine, but we have plenty of skeletons that give us a good indication of what they looked like.

But it also makes sense. As you say, whales are mammals. (Does somebody dispute that?) And the first mammals evolved on land. So whales are the descendants of land animals.

In fact, to this day, whales and dolphins carry remnants of their land-dwelling past ... whales have vestigial hip bones and leg bones from long unused legs, vestigial earbones and muscles from once-external ears.

Here's a picture of a dolphin embryo, in which you can see both forelimb and hindlimb buds:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/section2.html#ontogeny_ex3

Here are several really good sites on whale evolution:

These first two are just really good informational sites:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_05.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_cetaceans

This one on recent genetic evidence that shows they are most closely related to hippos:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4204021.stm

And these have more about responses to creationist objections to the idea of whale evolution:
http://www.talkorigins.org/features/whales/
http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/whale_evolution.htm

Answer 2

Did Whales Walk On Land

Answer 3

Cladistically speaking, this is true.
However, if we were around to see them that long ago, it is doubtful we would call them whales, or even know what we were looking at.
There is a lot about whale evolution on the internet, but here are a couple of good sites:
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/whale.ev.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_05.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/cetacea/cetacean.html
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0602920103v1
http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/whales/hind_limb_buds/

So, it is very true that whales evolved from land animals.

Answer 4

Funny how all the people that say it's true provide evidence to back up thier opinions, while the ones who say it's false don't.

Answer 5

False for sure, if you wanna say that long time ago the land were engulfed by water, its true.

Answer 6

ok here's what i need you to do. STOP..CLOSE YOUR EYES...AND PICTURE A WHALE WALKING ON LAND.... thank you

Answer 7

False, very false!!!!!!!