Innovation and Speciation:early whale hearing (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 10, 2017, 18:59 (2509 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTES: "The protocetes – named after the first fossil of their type, discovered in 1904 – were around during the middle Eocene, about 45 million years ago. They represent a transitional form between even-toed land dwelling ungulates and today’s whales. (dhw’s bold)

"A protocete had a long, toothed jaw with nostrils set far back. Its front and back legs ended in webbed toes, the rear ones well on the way to becoming vestigial. It is likely the species still spent some time on land, if only intertidal zones. (dhw’s bold)

"The findings suggest that the specialised ultrasonic and infrasonic hearing abilities of modern whales only developed after their ancestors had adapted to a complete marine life cycle." (dhw’s bold)

DAVID’s comment: Not surprising that hearing changed as they became fully aquatic.

dhw: But what is surprising is your insistence that your God prepared the pre-whale for marine life before it entered the water. So how much of all this do you think was divinely dabbled, and how much was caused by a perhaps God-given internal drive for improvement, as the cell communities adapted to a “complete marine life cycle”?

My answer is still 'why bother' since it involved so many complex adaptations. Why take the hard path when there are easier ones? I don't see any of this as a drive for improvement but as an unyielding drive for complexity.