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Ambulocetus (Latin ambulare "to walk" + cetus "whale") is a genus of early amphibious cetacean [a] from the Kuldana Formation in Pakistan, roughly 48 or 47 million years ago during the Early Eocene . It contains one species , Ambulocetus natans (Latin natans "swimming"), known solely from a near-complete skeleton.
Ambulocetidae is a family of early cetaceans from Pakistan.The genus Ambulocetus, after which the family is named, is by far the most complete and well-known ambulocetid genus due to the excavation of an 80% complete specimen of Ambulocetus natans. [2]
The size of a male sea lion, it had a large head with a long snout and robust, strongly worn teeth. The lower jaw shows that Ambulocetus had an unusual soft tissue connecting the back of the jaw to the middle ear — a small equivalent to the large sound-receiving fat pad in modern odontocetes. Its eyes were placed dorsally on the head, but ...
Johannes Gerardus Marie (Hans) Thewissen is a Dutch-American paleontologist known for his significant contributions to the field of whale evolution.Thewissen's fieldwork has led to the discovery of key fossils that have shed light on the transition of whales from land to water, including the discovery of Ambulocetus, Pakicetus, Indohyus, and Kutchicetus.
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Ambulocetus probably had a long, broad, and powerful snout, and eyes near the top of the head. It may have hunted like a crocodile, waiting near the water's surface and ambushing large mammals, using the jaws to clamp onto and drown or thrash prey.
However, Hans Thewissen, discoverer of Ambulocetus, has questioned these conclusions, suggesting that the smaller skeleton could be a partially digested meal. Even if the small skeleton is a fetus, Thewissen writes that it may not have been preserved in its normal in-vivo position. [ 4 ]
Dalanistes is an extinct genus of remingtonocetid early whale known from the late-early Eocene (Lutetian) of Kutch, India and Punjab and Balochistan, Pakistan. [1] Dalanistes is closely related to Remingtonocetus (the type genus of Remingtonocetidae, a slightly more derived family of early whales), but also shares several features with Ambulocetus (the type of Ambulocetidae, earlier more ...