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Originally published in Science Express on 19 September 2001
Science 21 September 2001:
Vol. 293. no. 5538, pp. 2216 - 2217
DOI: 10.1126/science.1065305
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Perspectives

EVOLUTION:
The Ancestry of Whales

Kenneth D. Rose

Whales are mammals that moved to the sea some 50 million years ago. The question of who their ancestors were has vexed scientists for years. In his Perspective, Rose highlights the report by Gingerich et al., who report unusually well-preserved primitive whale fossils. Rose explains that these fossils reconcile morphological and molecular data for the first time, indicating that whales evolved from even-toed ungulates (hoofed animals) rather than mesonychians (an extinct group of carnivorous ungulates). However, inconsistencies remain, and it is not yet clear whether whales are the sister group of hippopotami or not.

The author is in the Program for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. E-mail: kdrose{at}jhmi.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The position of Hippopotamidae within Cetartiodactyla.
J.-R. Boisserie, F. Lihoreau, and M. Brunet (2005)
PNAS 102, 1537-1541
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)