We will be reading The Tangled Bank by Carl Zimmer this semester as we are introduced to evolution. Chapter 1 of that book brings up the incredible case of whale evolution. This video does too, so it’s a great complement to your upcoming reading assignment. Moreover, this video highlights eight lines of evidence supporting the conclusion that whales evolved from land mammals. The eight lines are:
- Comparative anatomy
- Embryology & development
- Fossil record
- DNA comparisons
- Species distribution
- Evolution observed
- Predictive power of evolution
- Nested hierarchies of traits
Life and Biology 