Paleontologists generally place whale as descendents of mesonychids,
hyaena-like terrestrial critters. The DNA folks are of the opinion right now
that whales are closer to early artiodactyls, deer-like critters. Either way,
there is abundant evidence that whales do have quadrupedal, terrestrial
ancestors and that they adapted to aquatic environments sometime around 45
million years ago. There are a couple excellent recent books which document
this very well.
Mac West
Informal Learning Experiences, Inc.
Washington, DC
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