Darwin says: “What could be more interesting than that a human hand created for grasping, the hand of a mole created for digging, the foot of a horse, the short fin of a dolphin, and the wing of a bat are built on the same foundation?” He continues, “These diverse animals share this pattern because they evolved from a common ancestor with fingered limbs.”
When animals that evolved on land return to the seas, it is possible that they retained some traces of their terrestrial ancestors, such as arms and legs. This creature has both arms and legs!
If you haven’t guessed yet, let us tell you…
The spooky photo above is by the Curator of Herpetology and Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Zoology at the Danish Museum of Natural History. Dr. It caused quite a stir when it was shared on Twitter by Mark D. Scherz.
Yes, huge fingers belong to a whale!
This image, which emerged after the dissection procedure, belongs to a whale! They have 5 fingers, just like humans. This supports the hypothesis that whales evolved from 5-toed ancestors.
Their fins are actually legs.
In fact, if you look at the tail fins of whales, which are mammals, and compare them with fish, you will see that they are not fully fin-evolved legs.
When looking at the fossils of whales, which evolved from four-legged terrestrial ancestors, until they took their present form, the oldest one among them is a fish-eating carnivorous named Pakicetus.
In our content below, we have explained how this is possible through the evolution of whales:
Elpistostege’s fossil sheds light on evolution.
A complete skeleton of Elpistostege, a 375-million-year-old fish, has been unearthed, and its fins have bones resembling our fingers.
Thus, we learned that fingers evolved before vertebrates left the water. This discovery also shed new light on the evolution of quadrupeds.
We can see the same situation in other animals.
Notice that the fins of seals and elephant seals also function as legs on land. In other words, pinnipeds have 5 fingers on their feet, just like whales!
All these are not precedents brought together by a series of coincidences; Scientific examples showing that evolution really exists!
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