Obligatory Indohyus, my brother
this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
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Oh wow... Could I get some information about these species?
All of them have decent wiki pages. These are basically in chronological order and while not necessarily a direct line of descent show roughly how cetaceans went about returning to the water. The first few were mostly found as fossils in India and Pakistan.
- Large racoon-size. Thought to be very comfortable in water but didn't necessarily live there most of the time.
- Wolf sized. This one probably actually hunted in the water.
- Seal sized-ish. Likely lived mostly in the water like a hippo or mammalian alligator. Eyes and nostrils have moved up to allow breathing and looking around above the waterline while staying mostly submerged.
- Similar, but even more fully adapted to life in the water, and while it likely came ashore to give birth, it would have been awkward an walker.
- Even further specialized, and up to 400-600kg. Artistic representations look like a nightmare fuel combination of alligator and manatee.
- Fully aquatic now, and the size of a very small orca. Widely distributed fossils in what were shallow seas.
- A small "macroraptorial" sperm whale, basically filling the niche currently occupied by orcas, hunting large marine vertebrates.
Indohyus is a good boy
This is great, thanks!