Students ask: “Did whales evolve from land mammals?” – Part II

While a land mammal evolving into to a whale is impossible, evolution advocates claim that whale evolution did occur, pointing to several fossil creatures that supposedly display evolution from land to sea. Let’s examine the fossils found in a typical textbook1:

  • The first fossil, Pakicetus, was originally discovered as a few skull fragments and teeth, but was heralded as the “missing link” between land mammals and whales. However, when the body of the creature was discovered, it was found to be “no more amphibious than a tapir [pig-like animal].”2 Some have claimed that the ear anatomy of Pakicetus is similar to whales, however, other scientists have refuted this interpretation on scientific grounds.3,4
Interpretation plays a huge role in the way fossil finds are illustrated in museums and textbooks.

Ambulocetus: Interpretation plays a huge role in the way fossil finds are illustrated in textbooks.

  • The second creature, Ambulocetus, “is a whale by virtue of its inclusion in that lineage,” according to Dr. Annalisa Berta, an expert in marine mammal evolution.5 In other words, it is a “whale” only because of evolutionary speculation, not the evidence. Also, all supposed “whale traits” of Ambulocetus promoted by scientists should be regarded as disputable at best, and pure imagination at worst.6
  • Rhodocetus, the third creature, is claimed to have swam in the ocean like whales. Many diagrams of Rhodocetus show this animal with a whale’s fluke and flippers in an attempt to make this creature look whale-like. However, according to discoverer Dr. Phil Gingerich, he no longer believes that this creature had either of these features, but walked in a fashion similar to modern land mammals.7
  • The fourth creature, Basilosaurus, is an extinct whale that retained ‘leftover’ hind ‘limbs’. While these ‘legs’ were certainly not used for walking, they may have been used as reproductive claspers similar to those in some modern snakes.8,9
  • Some claim that the small pelvises, and in some cases, ‘limb’ bones found in modern whales are evolutionary ‘leftovers’. However, these organs function to strengthen the reproductive organs; far from ‘useless’.10

So, not only are the kinds of changes necessary to transform a land mammal into a whale biologically and statistically impossible, but the ‘evidence’ for them ever occuring is lacking! If this is the “textbook evidence” for evolution, then we should have no problem believing that God created whales “after their kinds”!

Free resources for further research:             

Chapter 7: Did Hippos Evolve into Whales?

Refuting Evolution: Chapter 5: Whale Evolution? 

Vital Function Found for Whale ‘Leg’ Bones 

Evolution: The Grand Experiment – Whale Evolution 

References: 

1Miller, Kenneth R., and Joseph S. Levine. Miller & Levine Biology. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2006. 466-467. Print.

2Thewissen, J. G., Williams, E. M., Roe, L. J. & Hussain, S. T. (September 20, 2011) Skeletons of terrestrial cetaceans and the relationships of whales to artiodactyls/ Nature, Vol 413, pp. 277-281. Cited in Werner, Carl, and Debbie Werner. Evolution: The Grand Experiment: The Quest for an Answer. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf, 2014. Print.

3Luo, Z.X., (1998) Homology and Transformation of the cetacean ectotympanic structures in The Emergence of Whales: Evolutionary Patterns in the Origin of Cetacea (J. G. M. Thewissen, ed.). Plenum Press, New York. p. 283. Cited in Werner, Carl, and Debbie Werner. Evolution: The Grand Experiment: The Quest for an Answer. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf, 2014. Print.

4Werner, Carl, and Debbie Werner. Evolution: The Grand Experiment: The Quest for an Answer. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf, 2014. 257-258. Print.

5Berta, A. (January 14, 1994). What is a whale? Science, Volume 263, pp. 180-181. Cited in Werner, Carl, and Debbie Werner. Evolution: The Grand Experiment: The Quest for an Answer. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf, 2014. Print.

6Werner, 2014, 264-268.

7Ibid., 139-143. 

8Sarfati, Jonathan D. Refuting Evolution. Brisbane, Australia: Creation Book, 2008. 75-76. Print.

9“Snakes with Legs? A Preliminary Reply.” Answers in Genesis. N.p., 20 Mar. 2000. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <https://answersingenesis.org/reptiles/snakes-with-legs-a-preliminary-reply/>

10Thomas, Brian. “Vital Function Found for Whale ‘Leg’ Bones.” Institute for Creation Research. N.p., 6 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.icr.org/article/8363>.