Whale Evolution in Action

There's often a fairly simplistic argument made against paleontological view of natural selection, mutation, and evolution, which states that there are no transitional fossils demonstrating the development of species from one to another over time. Then, of course, something new is found which demonstrates very tidily that the gap is filled by what can only be described as a form which is partway between two known forms. To this news, the argument from cdesign proponentists then shifts to saying: "well, you claim to have a transitional form between two fossil forms. But I see it differently: to me, you now have two more gaps that need to be filled."

In this sense, intelligent design and creationism's view of the fossil record is like a shell game in which ever more shells are placed between the one under which you've put the pea. You can never find enough forms to fill all of the "gaps". And this, it seems certain, is much better for them, and certainly easier than doing anything that might look like real science.

In the spirit of fair play (which they lack), I offer yet another example from the contentious grounds of the evolution of the whale. A recently described, 42 million year-old form, Georgiacetus vogtlensis, provides yet another example of those things which are "impossible" if you believe in the immutability of species and the "created kinds". Georgiacetus clearly displays further transitional stages in whale development, including a blowhole placed further forward than in modern whales, a pelvic girdle in which the hip bone is not firmly joined to the skeleton, meaning that this early whale most likely could not walk on land.

The story has also appeared on NPR's All Things Considered, and is worth a few minutes' listening. As always, these stories are only a part of the discoveries which are continually being made and assessed by science, and can only be ineffectually sneered at by the forces of unreason.

In addition, I've learned from the NPR story that apparently, the greatest literary champion of the whale, Herman Melville, included a chapter on whale fossils in his chef d'oeuvre, the much discussed but less-often read Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Of course, this means that now I'm going to have to add it to my list of books to read, having steadfastly avoided it for something like twenty years. Damn you, science, for expanding my literary horizons!