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Yilin Wang Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Main point of the following passage

It should be obvious that cetaceans—whales, porpoises, and dolphins—are mammals. They breathe through lungs, not through gills, and give birth to live young. Their streamlined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence of a fluke1 and blowhole cannot disguise their affinities with land-dwelling mammals. However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses, whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like. Extinct but already fully marine cetaceans are known from the fossil record. How was the gap between a walking mammal and a swimming whale bridged? Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans. The fossil consists of a complete skull of an archaeocyte, an extinct group of ancestors of modern cetaceans. Although limited to a skull, the Pakicetus fossil provides precious details on the origins of cetaceans. The skull is cetacean-like but its jawbones lack the enlarged space that is filled with fat or oil and used for receiving underwater sound in modern whales. Pakicetus probably detected sound through the ear opening as in land mammals. The skull also lacks a blowhole, another cetacean adaptation for diving. Other features, however, show experts that Pakicetus is a transitional form between a group of extinct flesh-eating mammals, the mesonychids, and cetaceans. It has been suggested that Pakicetus fed on fish in shallow water and was not yet adapted to life in the open ocean. It probably bred and gave birth on land.

This is a passage I found in an exam. Can anyone please explain why
"Pakicetus is the oldest fossil whale yet to be found." is a wrong statement based on this passage. Thank you
  

Top answer

Well, it says that Pakicetus is a "transitional form". It was not yet a proper whale. If it was not adapted to life in the open ocean, and gave birth on land, then these are not terribly whale-like characteristics.

  • Well, it says that Pakicetus is a "transitional form".
  • It was not yet a proper whale.
  • If it was not adapted to life in the open ocean, and gave birth on land, then these are not terribly whale-like characteristics.
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3 Answers
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Well, it says that Pakicetus is a "transitional form". It was not yet a proper whale. If it was not adapted to life in the open ocean, and gave birth on land, then these are not terribly whale-like characteristics.
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Yilin ****Your awesomeness is shining in the darkness, you know that?
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