Ambulocetus

Information about Ambulocetus

Ambulocetus
Fossil range: Eocene

Extinct (fossil)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetacea
Suborder:	Archaeoceti
Family:	Ambulocetidae
Subfamily:	Ambulocetinae
Genus:	*Ambulocetus*
Species:	*A. natans*

Binomial name

Ambulocetus natans
Thewissen et al., 1996

Reconstruction of Ambulocetus natans

Ambulocetus ("walking whale") was an early cetacean that could walk as well as swim. It is a transitional fossil that shows how whales evolved from land-living mammals. Having the appearance of a three-metre long mammalian crocodile, it was clearly amphibious, as its back legs are better adapted for swimming than for walking on land, and it probably swam by undulating its back vertically, as otters and whales do. It has been speculated that Ambulocetids hunted like crocodiles, lurking in the shallows to snatch unsuspecting prey. Chemical analysis of its teeth shows that it was able to move between salt and fresh water.

Ambulocetus did not have external ears. To detect prey on land, they may have lowered their heads to the ground and felt for vibrations.

Scientists consider Ambulocetus to be an early whale because it shares underwater adaptations with them: it had an adaptation in the nose that enabled it to swallow underwater, and its periotic bones had a structure like those of whales, enabling it to hear well underwater. In addition, its teeth are similar to those of cetaceans.

The Ambulocetus fossils were found in Pakistan by anthropologist Johannes Thewissen. When the animal was alive, Pakistan was a coastal region bordering the ancient Tethys Sea.

In popular culture

Ambulocetus was featured in Walking With Beasts and Prehistoric Planet as a crocodile-like ambush predator.
Fighting Natans is the mascot for North Eastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, where Hans Thewissen currently works.
A fictional subspecies of Ambulocetus also appears in James Rollins' novel, Ice Hunt.

References

J. G. M. Thewissen, S. I. Madar, and S. T. Hussain (1996). "Ambulocetus natans, an Eocene cetacean (Mammalia) from Pakistan". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 191: 1-86.

External links

BBC Online
Ambulocetidae: The First Costal Whales by J. G. M. Thewissen.

The Eocene epoch (55.8 ± 0.2 - 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma) is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch.
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conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)

FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses

Subclass †Allotheria*
Subclass Prototheria
Subclass Theria

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Cetacea
Brisson, 1762

Diversity
Around 88 species; see list of cetaceans or below.

Suborders

Mysticeti
Odontoceti
Archaeoceti (extinct)
(see text for families)

The order Cetacea
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Archaeoceti

Families and Clades

see text

Archaeocetes, or "ancient whales", are a paraphyletic group of cetaceans that gave rise to Autoceta or Neoceti - the new cetaceans.
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Ambulocetidae
Thewissen et al, 1996

Genera

Ambulocetus
Gandakasia
Himalayacetus

Ambulocetidae is a family of early cetaceans that still were able to walk on land.
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s
1993 1994 1995 - 1996 - 1997 1998 1999

Year 1996 (MCMXCVI
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Transitional fossils are the fossilized remains of transitional forms of life that illustrate an evolutionary transition. They can be identified by their retention of certain primitive (plesiomorphic) traits in comparison with their more derived relatives, as they are
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whale can refer to all cetaceans, to just the larger ones, or only to members of particular families within the order Cetacea. The last definition is the one followed here. Whales are those cetaceans which are neither dolphins (i.e.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses

Subclass †Allotheria*
Subclass Prototheria
Subclass Theria

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Crocodylidae
Cuvier, 1807

Genera

Mecistops
Crocodylus
Osteolaemus

See full taxonomy.
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae
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Lutrinae

Genera

Amblonyx
Aonyx
Enhydra
Lontra
Lutra
Lutrogale
Pteronura

Otters (Lutrinae) are amphibious (or in one case aquatic) carnivorous mammals.
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nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth.

In most humans, it also houses the nosehairs, which catch airborne particles and prevent them from reaching the lungs.
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Motto
اتحاد، تنظيم، يقين محکم
Ittehad, Tanzim, Yaqeen-e-Muhkam (Urdu)
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Walking with Beasts is a 2001 six-part television documentary produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom, narrated by Kenneth Branagh. In North America it has been retitled Walking with Prehistoric Beasts
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Season 1: 2002

1. Dawn of the Dinosaurs:Triassic

2. Jurassic Giants:Jurassic

3. Jurassic Beach:Late Jurassic

4.
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This article is about the author Jim Czajkowski. For the politician and lawyer from Missouri, see James S. Rollins.

James Rollins is the pen-name of American veterinarian Jim Czajkowski
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25: 235–246.
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