The Evolution of the Whale

The evolution of the whale is one of the greatest success stories in the history of mammals. It’s a grand epic that takes place over the course of over 50 million years. How did these animals first make it to the seas, and how did they become the biggest animals to have ever lived? In this video, we'll be exploring how whales changed throughout the Cenozoic.

Sources:

Image Sources:
David Arruda
Sara draws paleoart
Gabriel n.u.
Atolm

This video was sponsored by Brilliant

[dinomation]

Whales are definitely some of the most interesting animals on earth and definitely deserve respect!

[tomdangelo]

I just saw whales for the first time last weekend and I'm amazed with these creatures. I clicked right away to see the video but I'll have to wait haha.

[k_schreibz]

I have a weird phobia of whales. I don't know if its just their size and shape, but even looking at their land-based ancestors made me feel viscerally terrified. Any who, they are pretty majestic and a fantastic example of evolutionary prowess.

[robokill]

I just want to point out, that some of those whale ancestors look weird because the artists are shrinkwrapping them, not because they looked like that in life.

[rgromes]

Just one small correction: Livyatan with 13-17m length is the larges fossil sperm-whale relative, but modern sperm whales can grow considerably larger (>20m) and on average are about the same size!

[oliviabean]

I take slight issue with how you described the feeding habits of Baleen whales, they are also known to use group hunting tactics to maximize the amount of food they can acquire from a single gulp. Also considering they communicate with each other from across the planet I'd be surprised if some of those vocalizations aren't being used in order to find krill and whatnot more efficiently.

[charlottemacdonald]

Looking forward to watching. Whale evolution is my favourite 😊🐋

[richardcarter]

What I am curious to learn about is breathing through nostrils in the middle of the face turning into breathing through blow holes in the back of the neck.

[dracodracarys]

The ancestors of dolphins used to have legs but evolved to lose them. It was defeeting the porpoise

[Crakinator]

Pretty cool how ancient whales evolved convergently with mosasaurs. Also, considering there are giant whales AND sharks that use filter feeding today, I wonder how common of an occurrence it was throughout prehistory for animals to evolve filter feeding and attain huge sizes. It’s a big world, and I’m sure there are many fossils buried in places that aren’t easily accessible by humans, like deep within jungles or at the bottom of the sea. Maybe there was a huge suction feeding ichthyosaur we’ve yet to discover.

[pyrobeast_jack]

the bonk sound effect at the melon gave me emotional whiplash 🤣

[gandalf]

Ape: return to monke
Whales: return to ocean

[Labocania]

Great video as always, really love them, I wish you could do a video talking about the evolution of wolfs, foxes, dogs, etc. And also a video talking about the evolution maybe of some type of bird, to change it up aside mammals :)

[nicholasleon]

when i was in third grade we had to do a report on a whale and i was assigned the narwhal. this started my love of whales in general and my favorite animal is the orca

[benjaminisaksson]

Love your content, greetings from Sweden❤

[geckosruleall]

I'll comment it again because I really want to see it happen. Can you please do a video on the evolution of Suina? I just think pigs and peccaries are so cool! I'm really interested in how they evolved.

[jennifermommy]

GD!!! This is my new favorite channel! I'm about to binge. Schools should use these videos. Have you thought about advertising your channel to educational organizations?

[Jonathan-buiv]

It baffles me, how smart some people are figure these things out. It’s amazing to me that we can sit here today and understand the evolutionary process of a species relatively well, even though it occured so long before our own time.

[KarstenGerner]

Great video, love your channel. Very infromative and well written. You could do with speaking a little bit slower though.

[slyfoxxsr.]

I never knew my mother in law had an extensive evolution history. Thanks for the info!