Peregocetus pacificus, 43-million-year–old walking whale?
Have they finally found the missing link?
Published: 25 April 2019 (GMT+10)
An international team of paleontologists led by Dr Olivier Lambert, of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, has discovered a new alleged ‘walking whale’.1 This creature was Peregocetus pacificus, 4 m (13 ft) long, found in Playa Media Luna on Peru’s southern coast, and ‘dated’ to middle Eocene, 42.6 million years (Ma).
What was found?
Like many claims of missing links, we should ask: what was the actual evidence? E.g. the original claims of Pakicetus (‘Whale from Pakistan’) as an aquatic whale ancestor were based on skull fragments only. But finding a more complete skeleton showed that it was a fast-running land mammal (see Not at all like a whale and Whale evolution fraud). This is one reason why evolutionary agitprop needs to keep claiming to have ‘found the missing link’, apparently hoping that we forget that they have said that before.
But Peregocetus was represented by a fair number of bones, as shown above. This includes the lower jaw (mandible), shoulder and hip girdle, a front and rear leg and feet, and much of the spinal column, especially in the tail (caudal) region.
But it was missing a lot of crucial information as well: the skull for example, so we have no idea what its ear was like, and this is crucial for identifying putative whale ancestors. And while its tail vertebrae showed widening (“expanded transverse processes”), so it could have helped with propulsion in water, it was more like “those of beavers and otters”. There was no evidence for tail flukes as in real whales.
Evolutionary question-begging
The name Peregocetus pacificus means ‘travelling whale [that reached] the Pacific’ (the name Ambulocetus, meaning ‘walking whale’, was already taken). Nothing like putting the meaning ‘whale’ into a name to push the idea that it was some sort of whale ancestor. Never mind that almost no one looking at such a creature would ever call it a whale.
Where are the normal diagnostic criteria for cetaceans, such as powerful swimming tail, preferably with horizontal flukes, a blow hole, obligate aquatic body design, and middle and inner ears in a cavity outside the skull not inside it as with terrestrial mammals? (See also Whale evolution?) And it had a well-developed shoulder and hip girdle attached to its spinal column, with well-developed legs. Its feet even had hooves, so it could walk on land.
Wrong place and time
It was remarkable, from an evolutionary point of view, that such a fossil could be found so far away from its closest relatives. That’s why the genus name emphasized ‘travelling’. But worse for the evolutionists is the ‘dating’. That is, according to evolutionary dating, Peregocetus is millions of years younger than creatures that are clearly more whale-like, such as Rodhocetus allegedly 4 million years older, and Remingtonocetus 5 million years older and Protocetus 2 million years older (see illustrations below).
We see the same problem with the other most-touted evolutionary transition series, dinosaur-to-bird and fish-to-tetrapod. In the former, the definite flying bird Archaeopteryx and the beaked flying bird Confuciusornis are ‘dated’ millions of years older than the ‘feathered dinosaur’ ancestor candidates. In the latter, there are undoubted tetrapod footprints millions of years older than all the supposed intermediates, including the much-touted Tiktaalik (actually, footprints in general are often found in rocks ‘millions of years’ older than any animal that could have made them).
Talking about this problem with the proclaimed dino-to-bird series, its leading evolutionary critic, paleornithologist Dr Alan Feduccia likes to say, you can’t be older than your grandfather! His opponents in particular, and evolutionists in general, when confronted by similar problems, respond that sometimes a grandfather can outlive his grandson. This is correct, but one of the major ‘evidences’ of evolution is how the evolutionary order supposedly matches the fossil sequence. So the mismatch of claimed order of appearance with claimed phylogeny undermines the evolutionary explanation.
Furthermore, Peregocetus doesn’t seem to have ‘advanced’ beyond Ambulocetus, supposedly 6 million years older, i.e. virtual ‘evolutionary stasis’. But in the other direction, it is very different from the aquatic Dorudon and the enormous Basilosaurus, which are dated to 4 million years younger—i.e. a huge amount of change to occur by random mutation and natural selection. It’s nice that evolution is so flexible in that it can explain such vastly different rates, although we know of no difference in mutation rates or selective pressures. Also, there are problems in substituting so many mutations in such a short time, as evolutionary geneticists have realized (see the discussions about Haldane’s dilemma and the waiting time problem.
Conclusion
No, there are no four-legged whales. This should go without saying, by the normal meanings of words. But sadly not, with the dogma of land-mammal–to–whale evolution. This new find, Peregocetus, was certainly four-legged, and could stand and walk on land, but it was equally certainly not a whale. Furthermore, it is ‘dated’ as millions of years younger than some much more ‘whale-like’ creatures, opposite to the claimed evolutionary sequence. And there is too little time for mutations and selection to have evolved Peregocetus into something like a Basilosaurus.
A much better explanation is that God created whales fully formed, and on day 5—a day before He created land creatures, including those of the created kind comprising Peregocetus. This is one of many contradictions in the order of events between Genesis and long-age ideas.
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References and notes
- Lambert, O. and six others, An amphibious whale from the Middle Eocene of Peru reveals early South Pacific dispersal of quadrupedal cetaceans, Current Biology, 4 April 2019 | doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.050. Return to text.
Readers’ comments
Anyway, I doubt if the evo wave will ever go away with Satan pushing it and the masses refusing to use the brain given to them by God. It's a spiritual battle and at least I'm so thankful to be on the winning team that cannot lose in the end. Speaking of the brain used in our body, what a complete awesome masterpiece out of God's many masterpieces that we admire His increadible 'art work'. What an awesome God we have. Just to be recognized by Him is...., is too much to try to put in words.
In the first place, since they view science as being the process of supplying explanations for everything through natural processes alone, some form of slow, gradual change (general and specifically biological evolution) is the ONLY "scientific" explanation for everything.
Secondly, given the first assumption, one can create an imaginary evolutionary lineage from living animals. For example, there are living bacteria, archaea, and primitive one-celled eukaryotes; then sponges and jellies; tunicates and salps; hag fish and lampreys; cartilaginous jawed fish; bony fish with bony paddles, ray-finned fish, and "lungfish"; axolotls, newts, and salamanders with fewer-to-more terrestrial adaptations; reptiles; egg-laying mammals, marsupial and placental mammals; prosimians; monkeys; apes; and humans! So of course any variations not still extant appear to be transitional. No wonder evolutionists have no problem with the dates!
The terrestrial mustelid-to-sea otter observation merely emphasizes the difference between the cases. Note also the living sea lions, seals, manatees, etc. Throw in some extinct kinds and variations of them, and voila! imaginary whale lineage.
BTW, the "hooves" on Peregocetus look more like heavy claws to me, but the evolutionists have to have connections to their imagined beginning of the transition, too.
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One would even have to question if the jaw belonged to this animal as it seems like it was disconnected from the main skeletal frame as there was no neck or skull found.
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As usual if you look at the actual discovery, you'll find that the article usually has less substance than fairy floss.
We respect Dr Lightner's work on the mustelids, although the adaptations here are relatively minor compared to those claimed in the whale evolution story (as you intimated).
We have serious concerns about some of the baraminological analyses that Todd Wood has published. For example, the one on Homo gautengensis. Dr Peter Line discusses this here: Homo gautengensis. Dr Line says of Dr Wood's analysis:
"In some ways the result of Wood’s analysis is so wrong it can be refuted by simple observation. Consider the similarities of the Australopithecus sediba cranium to that of the Australopithecus africanus cranium Sts 71 from Sterkfontein.[Ref.] Then ask yourself, is a technique to be trusted that finds more similarities between the Australopithecus sediba skull and a modern human skull, than between the Australopithecus sediba skull and the Australopithecus africanus skull, to the point where Australopithecus sediba is classified as human and Australopithecus africanus is classified as an extinct australopith-type ape? Something is not right."
Indeed so. Baraminological analyses depend on the quality and scope of the data inputted, so we should not blindly accept conclusions that run against common sense.
In view of the difficulties which Hawking had to overcome in order to communicate at all, we ought to be generous in trying to follow what he was getting at, and not take advantage where he was perhaps unable to express himself as clearly as he might have liked. Within his own frame of reference, it’s a reasonable statement. It’s only by considering what the Bible says about those who say “There is no God” that we can conclude he was speaking as a fool.
Anyway, I reviewed The Grand Design, and see also Is there a God? from earlier this year, a review of Hawking's posthumously published book Brief Answers to the Big Questions.
The reason in some/many cases of people who eventually choose evolution against creation is probably because of something like wanting to marry an unsaved person but needing an excuse to do so. My opinion is that many antiCreationists get their higher qualifications by being clever enough to pass exams. We need to be wary of all antiCreationists. Clever yes, but not always true. Not all statements of scientists are scientific. Stephen Hawking wrote, “Because there is a law of gravity, the universe can and will make itself from nothing”! Utter nonsense. Reminds me of those academics who wrote utter nonsense and got it accepted by leading magazines! Why no worldwide outrage??
I read three books touting evolution by an Auckland University academic I know. He left my group of evangelical churches and went to a Methodist church. He says that the Hebrews naturally wrote their own primitive erroneous ideas about creation. But the world’s best seller itself claims that God wrote Genesis! Psalm 119:98–100 says we who stick to God’s word know more than our (evolutionist) enemies, the ancients, and even our teachers! Keep safe and stick to the Word of God. Let us who know God get out widely the liberating gospel based solidly and solely on the Word. God Himself will supply any necessary argument where we are unable.
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