Basilosaurus

The Basilosaurus or "King of Lizards" as it was claimed when it was first discovered in 1832, is actually an ancestor to the modern whale. This mammal's roots have been traced back to the early Eocene epoch with the discovery of the Mesonychid.
The Mesonychid was a land mammal that spent a good amount of time in the ocean, most likely while eating. They lived probably about 56 million years ago. They had a body much like a Hyena, wolf sized with a small brain. The skull of a Mesonychid is much like that on a bear.
The second ancestor to the Basilosaurus is the Ambulocetus. They lived 37-58 million years ago. They could weigh up to 650 pounds and were 10 ft in length. They were much like sea lions, they had hind legs that could support them on both land and sea. They lived in the riverbeds of Pakistan, ate fresh water crustaceans and fish. Discovered in 1993 by Hans Thewissen in Pakistan.

The Basilosaurus was a carnivorous mammal that fed on fish and crustaceans. They had 44 teeth much like the early placental mammals. They had almost no hind flippers and could be up to 82 feet. Mississippi and Alabama have adopted fossils found on the Atlantic coast of North America. Basilosaurus are part of the Animal Kingdom. They had a spinal cord and were in the class mammalia. The order cetacea means that they are aquatic mammals.

The climate in the early Eocene epoch was sub tropic, now it is sub arctic. The continents were moving towards setup that we would consider being "normal". India and Asia were just beginning to collide; forming the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas. Australia began to break away from Antarctica and moves quickly northward. The seas were quite high, covering most of the gulf coast and over laying Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The map the Earth in the middle of the Eocene epoch shows how the water level has dropped in the current times.

Mainly the fossils found have been in Egypt, Pakistan, Alabama (USA), and Mississippi (USA). In November 1989 a group of paleontologists, lead by Philip Gingerich uncovered an extinct whale with feet. The place of their discovery was in the Zeuglodon Valley, an ancient seabed that was once submerged by the Tethys Sea, of which the Mediterranean is but a "puddle sized remnant".

One World | home