a complementary Rodhocetus skeleton with hands and feet intact. He named this
one Rodhocetus balochistanensis after the province in
Pakistan where it was found. This discovery brought new surprises. The middle three
fingers of each hand retained a tiny hoof. And the anklebones proved to be the kind
that belonged only to hoofed mammals known as artiodactyls
Artiodactyls include cows, goats, pigs, and hippos. Rodhocetus combined features of
an aquatic whale with features of a hoofed mammal all in the same skeleton.
Scientists doing DNA studies had already claimed that the whale’s closest living
relatives were artiodactyls like the hippopotamus, and here was confirmation.
The fossil record and DNA evidence were now saying the same thing. Rodhocetus
was like an arrow pointing backward to a hoofed ancestor and forward to an
ocean-dwelling dolphin.
In this activity you’ll have a chance to meet Rodhocetus, the barely walking whale,
excavate and sort some “fossils” of your own, and learn how to read bones like a paleontologist
to understand the whale’s remarkable transition from land to sea.