Evening star., 1937-04-22
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Demonic titans of the ancient seas
whose bones lie scattered in the rocks OF
$4,000 0OO-year- old beaches may reveal to
paleontologists the dry-land ancestry of
the whales.
These were the archeoceti. or toothed
whales-creatures closely related to the
whales and porpoises of today, but not
ancestral to them and not so thoroughly
changed from the land mammals. The
largest Of them, the basilosaurus whose
fossils bones have been found in the Gulf
States, was an animal SIS to 60 feet long
doubtless one of the most formidable
beasts that ever lived 1t had the size
and all the means of ofense and defense
OF the reptile monsters of the oceans
which had disappeared. In addition, 1t
had an excellent brain.
A systematic study of these old whales
has just been carried out by DR.. Reming-
ton Kellogg, National Museum scientist,
under grant from the Carnegie Insti-
tuition of Washington in an effort to
decipher in their bones the land creatures
from whom they sprang. They may be
considered as first cousins to the whales
and porpoises Of today, arising from
the same ancestors, but not so thor
oughly adapted to life exclusively in the
water. There is evidence, for instance,
that the monstrous basiosaurus was
equipped to raise the front part OF its
body into the air at frequent intervals.
He probably lived in shallow water.
Others did not attain so great size,
but may have been equally ferocious.
How did a land-dwelling mammal
nI,o ifco1 ~, %ho af q
lion years into warm m-blooded flsh-a
creature for whom leaving the water
means drowning in air? This has been
persistent puzzle to BIOLOGISTS. Ihe
whale is unquestionably OF mammal
stock. It must trace its origin back to
the primitive mammals that rose out OF
a dinosaur stock in the last days OF the
great reptiles, about 120,000,000 years ago.
1t has a common ancestry with bear,
elephant, mouse and man. Yet its struc-
ture is so highly specialized for life IN
the water that it has been impossible,
up to the present, even to suggest family
tree. The monsters of the mammal world
are quite different from other water
mammals, such as seal or manatee. These
are still amphibian, at home either on
land or water. The whale is purely
aquatic.
From clues afforded by the bones Of
the long extinct archeoceti DR.. Kellogg
comes to the conclusion that they were
descendants of some ancient creodont
insectivore-a creature with teeth evolved
for eating insects which preceded the
differentiation of mammals into the
dominant stocks Of today-such as the
hesh-eaters, the prirnates or the hoofed
mammals. The direct ancestor, he be-
lieves, must have been a f1esh-eating
mammal with an elongated body, rather
long trunk and compressed tail like a
river otter of today. It may not have
been any larger. This creature hunted
its prey on the sea shore.
Now about 100000 years ago the
enormous, f1esh-eating reptiles of the
seas had become rather suddenly ex-
tinct. Only the ancestors of the croco-
dileS remained to represent them in a
new age. The shore dwelling creature,
naturally adapted for swimming, prob
ably encountered considerable compete
ton in the capture of food from other
mammals on the land side of its habitat.
More and more 1t turned to the sea
where there was plenty Of food and no
worthwhile competitiona Gradually it
came to spend more ta in the water