BIO153H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Mesonychid, Marine Mammal, Diacodexis
Document Summary
Whales: whales are sister taxon do mesonychia. Extinct terrestrial carnivorous ungulate - meat eating cows. Now believe that mesonychia are the sister taxa of the even-toed ungulates - Gap in fossil record made conclusions difficult. Modern whale: could indohyus be the cetacean ancestor, one type of ankle bone (atrsagalus) is typical for artiodactyls. The fact that the astragalus of indohyus looks like that means that . Only cetaceans have an involucrum: indohyus has an involucrum, this means that . Indohyus is a marine mammal: pakicetus was the 1st cetacean.
