The Walking Wales

Collecting Fossils in Pakistan and India

Join us to learn about the Walking Whale fossils! This is a presentation for all ages.

J. G. M. ‘Hans’ Thewissen has studied the paleontology, anatomy, and embryology of whales for more than four decades, and has traveled the world to study fossil and living whales.

In Pakistan, he discovered skeletons of the first whales, Pakicetus and Ambulocetus, the latter dubbed as the smoking gun of whale evolution by Steven Jay Gould. He documented how dolphin embryos first grow tiny limbs and then, by switching off some key genes, totally lose their hind limbs. His work on the sense organs of extant whales on Alaska’s North Coast has implications for the management of endangered whale populations in the Arctic. He has published more than 100 scientific papers, nine of which in the prestigious journals Science and Nature. He is one of three editors of the Marine Mammal Encyclopedia, now in its third edition. He also wrote a popular book on the origin of whales, ‘The Walking Whales’ (University of California Press), which was translated into Korean and Japanese.

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