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Description

Pakicetus - an ancient species of amphibious whale - showing an expression of fearful, defensive aggression widely shared among mammals: eyes wide with the whites showing, ears pulled back, and displaying the best weaponry the species in question happens to have, which in this case is a rather impressive set of teeth. I'm fascinated by the evolution of body language and emotion in animals. So much of it is shared between species separated by immense gulfs of evolution that they must have originated very deep in the geological past.

Pakicetus is one of the earliest known cetaceans, somewhere close to the ancestry of whales. It was basically a wading wolf with little hooves instead of paws, living on the shores of the great Tethys Ocean some 50 million years ago.

Description

Pakicetus - an ancient species of amphibious whale - showing an expression of fearful, defensive aggression widely shared among mammals: eyes wide with the whites showing, ears pulled back, and displaying the best weaponry the species in question happens to have, which in this case is a rather impressive set of teeth. I'm fascinated by the evolution of body language and emotion in animals. So much of it is shared between species separated by immense gulfs of evolution that they must have originated very deep in the geological past.

Pakicetus is one of the earliest known cetaceans, somewhere close to the ancestry of whales. It was basically a wading wolf with little hooves instead of paws, living on the shores of the great Tethys Ocean some 50 million years ago.