"We're gonna go way back to the last time we had a common ancestor to the mighty sperm whale. So, alright, it doesn't look all that great here. This is a bit humbling here. So this road diverged 90 million years ago, these are like a magna order of placental mammals that include giraffes, zebras, dogs, cats, rabbits, bats, primates, as well as whales."
"Just imagine that they're considered the poster childs of macro evolution. Like imagine one day just deciding like, I'm gonna go back into the water and I'm gonna sleep in the water. I'm gonna eat in the water, I'm gonna drink in the water, give birth in the water. This is everything. Their nose rolls over their head and becomes a blowhole. The skin thickens. So imagine just being in the, in the bathtub for too long and you pruning no longer needing fresh water."
Awe is introduced through the deep evolutionary connection between humans and whales. Humans and whales diverged roughly 90 million years ago within the placental mammal lineages. Whales transitioned back into aquatic life, evolving major adaptations such as nostrils migrating to a blowhole, thickened skin, and loss of dependence on fresh water, along with altered feeding, sleeping, and reproductive behaviors. Paleontological and molecular-evolutionary evidence underpins this narrative. The earliest recognized whale, Pakicetus, resembled a wolf-like animal that spent time in water, representing initial stages of cetacean evolution.
Read at Big Think
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