tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38902250.post5811746460315958253..comments2023-10-25T04:04:15.348-07:00Comments on When Pigs Fly Returns: A Lesson in Taxonomy Starring Puijila darwiniZachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08692080707969333711noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38902250.post-2818125418682252392011-02-12T09:06:46.644-08:002011-02-12T09:06:46.644-08:00I love your selective insights especially where Am...I love your selective insights especially where Ambulocetidae play a central theme for the evolution of whales. The image you chose even includes webbed feet!<br /><br />I think it would be fair to say you could lie most, if not all, late palaeocene/early eocine fossils prostate and claim they were aquatic... it certainly appears that way. Your site should then, really, be entitled, 'when pigs swim'. It would be far more accurate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38902250.post-78983329632536860722009-04-26T10:09:00.000-07:002009-04-26T10:09:00.000-07:00Its weird how you pronouce the name of the little ...Its weird how you pronouce the name of the little bugger. "Pew-wheela" (as in the sort of slang you say when you say "Flo Rida" or something. Before I found that out I kept calling it "poo-jee-lah"Metalraptorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17053007518293924808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38902250.post-88142312054935343572009-04-25T12:47:00.000-07:002009-04-25T12:47:00.000-07:00Yeah, one of the big debates in paleontology was w...Yeah, one of the big debates in paleontology was whether pinnipeds were polyphyletic or not. Puijila, as well as molecular evidence, shows that they were monophyletic, and closely related to the arctoid carnivores (bears and their extinct relatives). The reason why otters and the otter-like pinnipeds such as Potamotherium and Puijila look so similar is because they both occupied the same niche in their environment.Metalraptorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17053007518293924808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38902250.post-55779866650960170982009-04-25T10:31:00.000-07:002009-04-25T10:31:00.000-07:00I guess I meant to say "mutalid-like ancestor." Th...I guess I meant to say "mutalid-like ancestor." The tree I was looking at was structured like this: Bears + (Mustalids + (Pinnipeds)).Zachary Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05035947146927565746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38902250.post-25732810216376417942009-04-25T07:10:00.000-07:002009-04-25T07:10:00.000-07:00"Someday we'll find a tyrannosaur with two full fi..."Someday we'll find a tyrannosaur with two full fingers and the third finger has been reduced to a splint of bone"<br /><br />The "Peck's Rex" specimen does have a third finger, but it is, as you say, a splint of bone.<br /><br />However, there is one problem in your description. You state that pinnipeds are derived from mustelids, when the evidence seems to point that they arose from an arctoid ancestor.<br /><br />As for whales losing their legs, I think they really didn't start to lose them until the "advanced" archaeocetes like basilosaurids and such. They still have vestigial legs, but we don't have any seal-like whales losing their legs yet.Metalraptorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17053007518293924808noreply@blogger.com