474,321 views
1 vote
1 vote
Name at least two extinct species that share a close evolutionary relationship with humpback whales.

User Bernard Hauzeur
by
2.4k points

2 Answers

18 votes
18 votes

Answer:

The extinct species called Pakicétus and Indohyus may have had close evolutionary ties to humpback whales. The differences between Indohyus, Pakicetus, and Humpback whales are that Indohyus and Pakicetus both had legs and lived on land, while whales live in the ocean and have no legs. Although the embryo of a humpback whale has limbs that are dormant when it is adult, this could indicate that the animal's ancestors lived on land. Pakicetus and Indohyus are similar to humpback whales because their heads are shaped like long whale skulls. Everything is constantly changing due to evolution, the fossil record of the humpback whale is probably incomplete.

User Akanevsky
by
3.1k points
14 votes
14 votes
Thewissen and other collaborators announced that Indohyus, a small deer-like mammal belonging to a group of extinct artiodactyls called raoellids, was the closest known relative to whales.
User Osama FelFel
by
2.7k points