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Description
Ambulocetus natans!, the walking whale.

Although Ambulocetus may not look like a whale, it is the theoretical ancestor of all cetaceans(the infraorder that consists of whales and dolphins). We think ambulocetus was the ancestor of whales and dolphins due to it's similar skull shape and teeth shape. Ambulocetus was discovored in Pakistan by Thewissen in the punjab formation, because of where it was found we can say it lived in the early eocene . It was previously thought that ambulocetus would've lived like modern crocodilians, waiting and ambushing it's prey from the water, this was likely not the case because mammals are warm blooded meaning even if they're sitting still for a long time, their body is still using energy to produce heat, a lot of animals do this but mammals do it to a higher extent, because of this we now think ambulocetus would've ambushed prey when given the opportunity due to it's eyes being on top of it's skull, but would've hunted fish most of the time, to sustain it's metabolism. Ambulocetus's nose hole openings seems to be a mystery and can only be inferred based on where the nasal openings in other early cetaceans were, being that ambulocetus was either fully aquatic or mostly aquatic, the nasal openings were probably higher up on the face. We can say that ambulocetus was mostly to fully aquatic due to it's streamlined body, and fossils being found in what used to be wetlands, swamps and shallows. Chemical analysis of ambulocetus's teeth show it could move between freshwater and saltwater. Oddly enough, ambulocetus made it into a cold war spy novel where it would hide in caves underneath ice sheets. Ambulocetus would go extinct in the middle eocene due to a cooler and drier climate.

Happy summer everyone!

Description
Ambulocetus natans!, the walking whale.

Although Ambulocetus may not look like a whale, it is the theoretical ancestor of all cetaceans(the infraorder that consists of whales and dolphins). We think ambulocetus was the ancestor of whales and dolphins due to it's similar skull shape and teeth shape. Ambulocetus was discovored in Pakistan by Thewissen in the punjab formation, because of where it was found we can say it lived in the early eocene . It was previously thought that ambulocetus would've lived like modern crocodilians, waiting and ambushing it's prey from the water, this was likely not the case because mammals are warm blooded meaning even if they're sitting still for a long time, their body is still using energy to produce heat, a lot of animals do this but mammals do it to a higher extent, because of this we now think ambulocetus would've ambushed prey when given the opportunity due to it's eyes being on top of it's skull, but would've hunted fish most of the time, to sustain it's metabolism. Ambulocetus's nose hole openings seems to be a mystery and can only be inferred based on where the nasal openings in other early cetaceans were, being that ambulocetus was either fully aquatic or mostly aquatic, the nasal openings were probably higher up on the face. We can say that ambulocetus was mostly to fully aquatic due to it's streamlined body, and fossils being found in what used to be wetlands, swamps and shallows. Chemical analysis of ambulocetus's teeth show it could move between freshwater and saltwater. Oddly enough, ambulocetus made it into a cold war spy novel where it would hide in caves underneath ice sheets. Ambulocetus would go extinct in the middle eocene due to a cooler and drier climate.

Happy summer everyone!