Legged Whales Don't Stand Up

The Point by Colson Center

When reading headlines about evolution, look for actual evidence, not just the interpretation of that evidence. Case-in-point: a recent BBC story proclaimed a discovery in Egypt of a so-called “whale with legs,” dated 43 million years old.

Phiomicetus anubis is hailed as Africa’s first “legged whale,” and is similar to other so-called “legged whales” from Asia. As the story goes, these preceded fully-aquatic whales.

What the article neglects to mention is that paleontologists commonly accept that fully-aquatic whales predate this new discovery by millions of years. In fact, a helpful video from the Discovery Institute on whale evolution points out that there’s just no time in the fossil record for these creatures labeled “legged whales” to evolve into true whales. They appear out of the order Darwinism predicts, and therefore cannot represent an evolutionary lineage.

You won’t read that in the headlines, which is why developing a nose for fish stories—or whale stories—is essential.