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The Missing Link
An Ohio University anatomy professor claims that an odd raccoon-sized animal that looks like a long-tailed deer without antlers and lived in India 48 million years ago is the missing evolutionary link between whales and land animals.
Fossils of the creature, called Indohyus, reveal crucial evolutionary
similarities between it and water-dwelling cetaceans, such as whales, dolphins
and porpoises.
The hippo has long been considered the closest land relative because of its
similar DNA and whale-like features.
The Indohyus is a "missing link" to the sister species to ancient whales, said Hans Thewissen, an anatomy professor at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, who has studied hundreds of 48-million year-old Indohyus bones unearthed in Kashmir. The Indohyus looks like
a tiny deer maybe the size of a raccoon and no antlers," Thewissen said, resembling the African mousedeer.
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21st January 2008, 00:35
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