The whales we know today look nothing like they did millions of years ago. Instead, cetaceans, the group including today's whales and dolphins, evolved 50 million years ago from small four-legged animals with hooves, researchers say.
Instead, cetaceans, the group including today's whales and dolphins, evolved 50 million years ago from small four-legged animals with hooves. Rather than being one of the largest creatures on Earth, as they are now, they came from creatures that were the size of an average dog.
Scientists will continue to dig in this area in Peru. They hope to find bones that may be even older so that they can fill in more pieces of this puzzle about how the whale evolved over time. "A skull would be great, as well as the tip of the tail," Lambert said.
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