Whales are the only animal for which we have a complete fossil record of its evolution from one species to another.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/redesign.shtml
Whales were originally a furry hooved carnivore, no more at home in the water than a tiger. But the shorelineis where the food is. While all other hooved carnivores died out this one apparently ate fish that washedup, then began to go after them in the water.
Ambulocetus, the “walking whale,” looked like a crocodile with fur. That is what the original hooved carnivore evolved into. There are thousands of skeletons of these animals that link them directly to whales. It must have mated and had its offsrping on land and it only swam in fresh water.
Then the ambulacaetus took several evolutionary steps. It adapted to salt water, it adapted to mating and having its offspring on land, and it grew a lot.
Actually later seagoing whales still had their two legs that were useless for anything but holding on while mating. And they all remained hunters long after they became ocean beings.
Eating krill came later, much later.
I have talked about the people who in America long before the Indians. The Indians, of course, killed them and took their lands. My theory of why their travel left few traces is not only time, but also because they probably followed the coastline. A people used to foraging the sea would not care so much about WHICH beach they were traveling across.
The one thing that is always changing historically is the coast. There are towns in England that were there in historical times and are now under sea. They found the dead at Pompeii after they figured out where the seacoast was in 69 BC and looked there for the people who were waiting for ships.
Earlier people had searched the present coaswt because they didn’t know it had changed, even though St. Augustine’s episcopal sea at Hippo is long since under water.
There is enormous evidence that man made a partial transition to sea life. Even the hairs on our backs are positioned for better swimming. Our lack of hair in general is an adaptation to sea life.
There is a very long list of things man has that are obvious adaptations to water.
Also, dolphins have a huge brain, bigger than ours. They too were once furry animals.
We need to look at ancient, very ancient shorelines to find this critical step in our own evolution. Science only accepted continental drift in my lifetime, so we are very backward in that respect.
#1 by H.S. on 08/28/2005 - 6:44 pm
If adherents to the alternate religion of PC need for whales to have been furry hooved carnivores, you will have a thousand professors line up and swear that they did.
There is less than no scientific fact to back up the article and statements above.
#2 by Bob on 08/28/2005 - 7:27 pm
Why does PC need evolution?
Evolution is the antithesis of equality and universality.
I am genuinely interested in your answer to this, since it fits into the kind of thinking I am trying to inculcate.
Evolution is a bone of contention between atheistic forms of wordism and Christian forms of wordism. Karl Marx hated religion so he tried to dedicate Das Kapital to Darwin, and Darwin refused. Marx felt he had an ally against wordist Christianity, which is based on the Old Testament.
But in terms of Bob’s Blog, a fight between two forms of wordism is not important.
Professors rue the day they ever coined the term “political correctness.” It gave a name to their whole campaign of terrorizing everybody who used the wrong words.
Since then they have backpedaled desperately. They say the term political correctness was just a joke. They use it on talk shows to mean saying the right things about religion.
Anything to divert people from the real and limited meaning of the term political correctness.
For once their ploys have NOT worked. For once the public knows exactly what the term political correctness means and it is the only word to describe this phenomenon.
Conservatives who use political correctness for anything they don’t approve of help the professors enormously.
If evolution is necessary to political correctness I would certainly agree that a thousand professors would line up to support it before midnight tonight. But I have NEVER heard evolution mentioned as a motivation for ANY human action in ANY social science class.
Social science, political correctness, avoids any discussion of heredity whatsoever.
I repeat, what is it about evolution that is politically correct?
Professors hate Old Testament wordism, so they use evolution against it. But that is a battle between two forms of wordism.
When it comes to environment versus heredity, professors avoid evolution like the plague.
And I repeat, if you expand the term politically correct to include anything you do not agree with, you are aiding the enemy.
You may be right. But don’t aid the enemy by your terminology.
Words are our weapon here. Don’t use them against our own side.
#3 by Peter on 08/28/2005 - 8:15 pm
As someone who loves swimming all day every day in open water when he has a chance, I have noticed something. When you swim in fresh water or when you swim in salt water, the water dries out your skin by washing the oils off if you swim too long. If you don’t swim at all or don’t bathe often enough in water, your skin gets greasy. I’ve always taken that to mean that swimming often was a natural act for humans. (Ever notice that water dogs like Labs are greasier than other breeds?) The right kind of brackish water — just a little salty — is just right, and you can swim all day. Slightly brackish water exists where fresh and salt water meet — near the coasts.
#4 by Elizabeth on 08/29/2005 - 1:30 pm
“Water exercises” have gained a lot of popularity in recent years for those of
us who have problems with weight-bearing exercises. Gravity can do some unpleasant
things to the human body: swimming, “water exercises,” and just plain hanging onto
the edge of a swimming pool and relaxing can be powerful restoratives. Especially
when the water’s warm.
The reason the oldest-known stone buildings found are the temples and tombs on
Malta is that Malta used to be a mountain top, and there’s a long-standing
human instinct to bury the dead and try to link with heaven on high ground.
First, the Black Sea was created by the melting of the Ice Age glaciers, and,
secondly, the Med was created when an earthquake broke open the barrier to
the Atlantic. And, at some point, the low ground between the “Continent” and
Britain became a casualty to rising water — and the North Sea began.