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The Walking Whales: From Land to Water in Eight Million Years, by J. G. M. "Hans" Thewissen
Free Ebook The Walking Whales: From Land to Water in Eight Million Years, by J. G. M. "Hans" Thewissen
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Hans Thewissen, a leading researcher in the field of whale paleontology and anatomy, gives a sweeping first-person account of the discoveries that brought to light the early fossil record of whales. As evidenced in the record, whales evolved from herbivorous forest-dwelling ancestors that resembled tiny deer to carnivorous monsters stalking lakes and rivers and to serpentlike denizens of the coast.
Thewissen reports on his discoveries in the wilds of India and Pakistan, weaving a narrative that reveals the day-to-day adventures of fossil collection, enriching it with local flavors from South Asian culture and society. The reader senses the excitement of the digs as well as the rigors faced by scientific researchers, for whom each new insight gives rise to even more questions, and for whom at times the logistics of just staying alive may trump all science.
In his search for an understanding of how modern whales live their lives, Thewissen also journeys to Japan and Alaska to study whales and wild dolphins. He finds answers to his questions about fossils by studying the anatomy of otters and porpoises and examining whale embryos under the microscope. In the book's final chapter, Thewissen argues for approaching whale evolution with the most powerful tools we have and for combining all the fields of science in pursuit of knowledge.
- Sales Rank: #315539 in Books
- Published on: 2014-11-13
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .80" w x 6.00" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
Review
"Racily recounted adventures . . . Meticulous comparative work."--Richard Shelton"Times Literary Supplement" (03/27/2015)
"Delightful reading . . . Thewissen's book is a fine account."--Rob Hardy"The Dispatch" (05/06/2015)
"Mixes memoir, adventure, history, and popular science to tell one of the most fascinating stories to emerge from paleontology in the last quarter century. . . . This is an excellent, accessible summary of a fascinating and fruitful career and a treasure trove of information regarding the first 20 million years of cetacean history that will be used for years to come."--Michael R. McGowen"Science Direct" (04/29/2015)
"The book alternates between entertaining exploits in the field that reminded me of a gentler version of Indiana Jones and detailed discussions of whale anatomy and evolutionary descent. . . . The author is a good teacher, thorough and with a fine sense of humor."--Rob Hardy"The Columbus Dispatch" (05/06/2015)
"Thewissen provides an excellent balance between the science and the narrative. . . . an excellent read."--T. A. Franz-Odendaal"CHOICE" (07/01/2015)
From the Inside Flap
"Thewissen convincingly conveys the paleobiology of early whales as a dynamic and exciting area of study. In this account of adventures and discoveries, he relives his experiences in the field and his career exploring whale evolution."
—Annalisa Berta, author of Return to the Sea: The Life and Evolutionary Times of Marine Mammals
"The Walking Whales is absolutely cutting-edge. The field of whale paleontology has undergone major changes in understanding over the past fifteen years. A broad readership will enjoy Thewissen’s stories and how they fit into the narrative arc of scientific discovery about early whales."
—Nicholas Pyenson, Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
About the Author
J. G. M. "Hans" Thewissen is Ingalls-Brown Endowed Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Northeast Ohio Medical University. His main research interest is the study of whales, particularly their adaptations to life in water and their origin as land mammals. He discovered in 1994 the skeleton of the first-known whale that could walk on land (Ambulocetus), and he has led more than ten field expeditions each to Pakistan and India, collecting fossil whales. He is coeditor of Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (2002), Emergence of Whales (1998), and Sensory Evolution on the Threshold (UC Press, 2008).
Most helpful customer reviews
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
A good place to start your exploration of whale ancestors.
By eagseags
Before the mid-1990's, the evolutionary origin of whales was pretty much a complete mystery. Some primitive whales like Basilosaurus and Dorudon were known from the Late Eocene, but these are very much closer to modern whales than to any land mammal (although they still retained tiny external hind limbs). It was one place Creationists had it right when they said that there were no plausible fossil intermediates.
The conventional wisdom before the 1990s was that whales evolved from land-dwelling wolf-sized artiodactyl predators called mesonychids, which lived from the Paleocene to the Eocene. This link was made on the basis that details in the skulls of mesonychids and of primitive whales look similar, particularly in the sharp triangular teeth. Artiodactyls are hoofed mammals with an even number of toes (giraffes, deer, hippos, pigs, etc.). They have a characteristic "double-pulley" ankle bone, the astralgus. Modern artiodactyls are almost all herbivores, but there are many fossil offshoots like the mesonychids that were obvious carnivores. The evolutionary story was that whales went back to the water in search of a new source of prey. Nowadays, regardless of any putative fossil ancestors, we can confirm through genetic analysis that whales are indeed artiodactyls, and that their closest living relative is the hippo.
The story of how many important whale intermediates where identified is covered in a new book "The Walking Whales" by Hans Thewissen. Thewissen himself made the first serendipitous discovery of a fairly complete whale intermediate, Ambulocetus, in Pakistan in 1991 while looking for fossils of land mammals. He also discovered several other key whale intermediates in India and Pakistan subsequent years. These vary in size, shape of the skull, placement of nostrils, and type of teeth. What these animals have in common is that they can clearly get about on land, having four strong limbs, but have an open-capsule inner ear with an involucrum characteristic of whales. Some retain the ear canal (since obviously they needed to receive sounds from the air). Many have denser bones than most artiodactyls, presumably because their lifestyle requires them to be less buoyant in water. The most un-whalelike known intermediate is Indohyus, a swift-running deer-like creature the size of a raccoon that is an obvious herbivore. Indohyus suggests another evolutionary path for returning to water. The analogy is with the modern mouse-deer, which dives underwater and stays there for several minutes to evade predators. This set of intermediates makes it seem unlikely that mesonychids are on the path to whales.
"The Walking Whales" is a very nice mixture of story-telling and scientific exposition. There are the sections where Thewissen relates how particular key specimens were collected and/or prepared by himself and a small team. Then there the sections that explain the significance of these specimens (plus the whale intermediates discovered by others) and what can be concluded from them. The latter sections are "semi-technical" in the sense that they are illustrated by the type of diagrams one would normally see in a scientific publication. I found these illustrations very helpful in getting the "big picture." There are also restoration pictures of whale intermediates by paleoartist Jacqueline Dillard. Five genera are on the front cover: Basilosaurus, Ambulocetus, Kutchicetus, Pakicetus, and Indohyus.
My taste usually runs more toward science rather than stories about fossil-collecting adventures, which I sometimes dismiss as "travelog," but Thewissen is an engaging writer on this topic. The story I found most absorbing is how Indohyus was discovered. Indian paleontologist A. Ranga Rao over a period of decades had collected a large amount of material in the same Eocene fossil beds from which many whale intermediates were recovered. As an outsider to mainstream paleontology, however, he was unable to prepare, study, or publish what he had collected, and the material lay in burlap bags in the cellar of his house and in piles in the backyard. After his death from a brain tumor, his widow, German-born Friedlinde Obergfell, lived in seclusion in India in the house she shared with Rao and refused to let any scientist examine the material, fixated the unrealistic idea that someday her dilapidated house would be an important scientific center for studying Indian fossils. By 2005, Obergfell was quite old, deaf, and distrustful. Thewissen, fearing that the material would ultimately be destroyed by the elements without being studied, persuaded Obergfell that he should take at least a few blocks of the material and look for fossils. Indohyus is one of the discoveries from that incident. Obergfell died in 2007, and unexpectedly appointed Thewissen as the main person to study the fossils left by her husband. A sad story with a happy ending for science.
I usually appreciate reading about aspects of paleontology I was not aware of before. There are some very nice discussions here. For example:
1.The study of the ratio of oxygen-16 to oxygen-18 isotopes in fossils allows one to determine whether a whale intermediate lived in fresh or salt water. Bottom line: Ambulocetus and Pakicetus were probably river dwellers. Protocetus and Remingtonocetus were ocean dwellers.
2.Development of limbs and the shape of the teeth is controlled by specific proteins. One can stain thin slices of dolphin embryos to see which proteins are active at any given time. This can give a clue as to which specific genes were inactivated in whale evolution. Every once in a while a dolphin is born with rear flippers (a specific individual named Haruku lives in a marine park in Japan ), and it might be possible to find a genetic difference in those individuals vs. other dolphins.
Overall, I would recommend this book to serious paleo amateurs or professionals. The only negative you could say is that this book emphasizes discoveries made by the author, so if you want a more global treatment of fossil whales, you might have to look elsewhere. However, "Walking Whales" is a good place to start.
33 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
Transitional Whale Fossils
By N. D. Schey
If you have a creationist friend who is still claiming there are no transitional fossils to prove evolution, give them a copy of this book. Dr. Hans Thewissen takes you with him on field trips to Pakistan and India as he finds transitional whales fossils such as Ambulocetus, Kutchicetus, and Basilosaurus that lived 40-50 mya that show the transition from land mammals, such as Indohyus and Pakicetus, to modern whales and dolphins. This book is a pleasure to read and was difficult to put down. It is easy to be infected by the paleontologist's enthusiasm as he battles the heat and the remoteness of his fieldwork areas in Pakistan and India as he recovers these fossils.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
One of the best paleontology books I have read
By Richard D. Norris
Others have written excellent reviews of this work, so I will keep my comments short. I'm a professional paleontologist and have actually seen, in Phil Gingrich's laboratory, some of the early whales described in this lovely book. Thewissen does everything very well here. He describes the process of discovery, giving you the sense of field work in Pakistan and how insight is gained from scraps of bone and teeth. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of working with Pakistani and Indian colleagues--it is easy to imagine the quizzical looks of villagers as the field team rolls through a small town, or the paranoia of an old lady clutching a hoped-for future discovery while the untended fossils crumble around her. He describes the animals that form the connections between fully terrestrial and fully aquatic ecosystems. There is undoubtedly much we still don't know about the ancestors of whales. But we have enough of the sketch that it is hard for Creationists to claim, as they used to do only a decade ago, that whales were one of the best examples of distinct `kinds' of life without evolutionary intermediates. Thewissen also delves into the other types of knowledge we have about whale origins, such as embryology, light stable isotopes and comparative studies with living mammals. All this emerges in a small volume that is so delightful and well written, that I could hardly put it down. This is a vastly better book than any other I have read about whale origins.
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