Early Whales Gave Birth On Land?
04 February 2009
Discovered in Pakistan in 2000 and 2004 and studied at the University of Michigan are the fossils of a creature that has been named Maiacetus inuus from the extinct group of creatures known as archaeoceti. While it is quite evident that the the archaeoceti are a land dwelling animal researchers frequently call it a whale.
When someone sees a headline that says "Whale from the Middle Eocene of Pakistan: Birth on Land" they should give pause and enquirer how that is possible. Quite simply, it is not possible. Whales live in the water. What the article should say is "Archaeoceti from the Middle Eocene of Pakistan: Birth on Land".
So why is the archaeoceti considered a whale? If evolution is true then over millions and billions of years you would need single-celled organisms to group together as multi-celled organisms, those multi-celled organisms to get bigger, better, and more complex to form every other plant and creature on the planet. This process is known as macro-evolution.
After all the different kinds of animals have evolved then speciation happens where one kind of dog can breed to produce multiple species of dogs, one kind of horse can breed to produce multiple species of horses, and one kind of whale can breed to produce multiple species of whales. This is known as micro-evolution or variation.
Macro-evolution (origin of new kinds of animals) has never been observed. Micro-evolution (origin of new species of animals) has been observed.
At some point in the past someone lined up all the fossils and drew an imaginary line between archaeoceti and the whale because they have some similar structures. Lining up bones you find buried in rock does not prove they were ever related. Science requires observable, repeatable, empirical evidence. Archeology produces some empirical evidence but none of it can prove that any two groups of fossils were ever related.
Here is some empirical evidence we can know about whales and archaeoceti.
- Size: Maiacetus inuus was less than 6 ft long. A whale is up to 35 ft long.
- Breathing: Whales breathe through a blow hole, not their mouth.
- Tail: Whales have a powerful tail for strong swimming.
- Eyes: Whale eyes are designed to see better in water than other mammal eyes.
- Ears: Whale ears are designed to better pickup sound underwater.
- Pressure: A whales body, eyes, and ears will not crush under high water pressure.
- Skin: Whales do not have hair of sweat glands in their skin.
- Circulatory: Blood vessels in whales fins are similar to heat exchangers to reduce heat loss.
- Reproductive: Whale has special nipples to breast feed underwater.
- Birthing: Land mammals are born head first, whales are born tail first.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004366
Archaeoceti image from Carl Buell: http://www.neoucom.edu/Depts/Anat/Remi.html
