A. Gennari/NHMA new extinct species unearthed in Peru is the missing link in cetaceans that returned to the sea – a four-legged, hooved whale. We usually think of mammals as having evolved out of the sea and onto land, but for whales, that process ran backwards. The earliest known whale fossils from India and Pakistan show a species that transitioned back into the oceans in south Asia around 50 million years ago. According to a new study in Current Biology, microfossils located near the main find date the creature as 42.6 million years old. Peregocetus pacificus, as it has been named, had four limbs, each ending in hooved toes, and a skeletal structure that suggests these legs could have supported the sizeable creature on land.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 04, 2019 18:11 UTC