ABSTRACT
In one of his essays published in 1994, Stephen Jay Gould described, in his exciting style, the contemporary discoveries of the oldest whales. He emphasized their importance in the demolition of one of the strong points of the creationists’ theories against Darwinism: the presumed lack of fossil evidence in the transition between land mammals and whales. In fact, the discoveries of the last two decades, especially those made in Pakistan, India and Egypt and published by Philip D. Gingerich, J.G.M. Thewissen, Mark Uhen and others, have revealed the transitional phases that occurred over 15 million years, from terrestrial mammals to whales perfectly adapted to aquatic life. Therefore the origin of whales represents one of the bestdocumented examples of macroevolution.
