One of the first cetaceans, Pakicetus, was a goat-sized creature that lived along the banks of lakes and rivers in ...

The evolution of modern cetaceans (including whales, dolphins, and porpoises) from terrestrial ancestors required many drastic anatomical, physiological, and behavioral changes. The development of an ...

As evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin points out, "In one sense, evolution didn't invent anything new with whales. It was just tinkering with land mammals. It's using the old to make the new." ...

Found on the southern coast of Peru, this amphibious creature had a tail and hooves and was the oldest preserved fossil of ...

There have only been about 30 whale generations since whaling largely ceased. Researchers may need twice that long to uncover ...

In the process he has shown that whales, once celebrated by creationists as the best evidence against evolution, may be evolution's most elegant proof. "Complete specimens like that Basilosaurus ...

For several years now, Coombs has been studying whale skull peculiarities—such as the structure’s unusual asymmetry in some species—and their implications for cetacean evolution. She first started ...

Early ancestors of the ocean's biggest animals once walked on land. Follow their extraordinary journey from shore to sea. Although whales are expert swimmers and perfectly adapted to life underwater, ...

On 4 July, the spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii), which has never been seen alive, washed up on a beach in Otago, ...