. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. A WHALE OF A STORY Unlike dinosaurs that "went missing" some 65 million years ago, whales tell a story of evolutionary opportunism, Schneider says. "It's an amazing story that couldn't have been told until 20 or 30 years ago when exploration in India and Pakistan turned up fossils of Ambulocetus natans (swimming walking whale), an early ancestor of modern whales," he says. Scientists determined that this amphibi- ous species was the whale's intermedi- ate evolutionary link. Not long aft
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. A WHALE OF A STORY Unlike dinosaurs that "went missing" some 65 million years ago, whales tell a story of evolutionary opportunism, Schneider says. "It's an amazing story that couldn't have been told until 20 or 30 years ago when exploration in India and Pakistan turned up fossils of Ambulocetus natans (swimming walking whale), an early ancestor of modern whales," he says. Scientists determined that this amphibi- ous species was the whale's intermedi- ate evolutionary link. Not long after- ward in Pakistan, scientists discovered Rhodocetus kasrani, and labeled it the "transitional whale" because its adapted, flexible spinal column is suitable for swimming like a whale. "Now we have nearly a complete picture of almost all steps of its evolu- tionary progression from being a land- based mesonychid to becoming the largest creature in the sea," Schneider says, hinting at what is still to come as we move toward a simulated prehistoric aquarium filled with vaguely familiar marine life. The underwater time tunnel plunges us into North Carolina's Eocene epoch ocean waters about 50 million years ago. We catch a glimpse of an adroitly swimming Zygorhiza kochi, an early modern whale. Its flippers are the remains of former front limbs, and lin- like appendages are remnants of what once were webbed hind feet. In geologic terms, Schneider notes, the whale's transformation has been relatively rapid. But this is not unusual after a major extinction event. When dinosaurs and large marine reptiles died FIELD WORK IS A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT FOR DALE RUSSELL, LEFT, AND VINCE SCHNEIDER. out at the end of the Cretaceous period, other species filled their niche. Perhaps mesonychids began to exploit the opportunity to feed on fish in the sea and thus began their adaptive evolutionary journey to survival. In the underwater tunnel, we see Zygorhiza chasing a school
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