2014年9月5日 · Buried deep within the body of a whale, underneath the heaps of muscles and tendons, lie some little, lonely bones. They are whale hips–and they are one of the stranger examples of...

2020年8月24日 · The next time you see a whale skeleton, look for mysterious “free-floating” bones. These levitating bones are evidence that whales once had hips and walked on land! Scientists call them vestigial (or left-over) structures.

2014年9月8日 · Both whales and dolphins have pelvic (hip) bones, evolutionary remnants from when their ancestors walked on land more than 40 million years ago. Common wisdom has long held that those bones are simply vestigial, slowly withering away like tailbones on humans.

2014年10月28日 · A new study, co-authored by Erik Otárola-Castillo, a fellow in David Pilbeam’s paleoanthropology lab in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, suggests that the bones, in fact, have a very specific purpose — particularly when it comes to making baby whales and baby dolphins.

2023年1月4日 · The pelvis and hip bones of whales are smaller and not attached to the spine, unlike humans and other terrestrial mammals. However, they are still present and embedded within the whale’s muscle tissue.

2014年9月8日 · Whales and dolphins need their hips, it turns out. The bones that we used to believe were vestigial turn out to be important to reproduction. The muscles that control a cetacean's penis --...

2014年9月10日 · A new study turns a long-accepted evolutionary assumption on its head, finding that whale pelvic bones play a key role in mating. Both whales and dolphins have pelvic (hip) bones, evolutionary remnants from when their ancestors walked on …

2014年9月11日 · In male whales, the pelvis controls the penis with an especially elaborate set of muscles. In some whale and dolphin species, these muscles make the penis downright prehensile. Zimmer goes on to explain how a new study strongly suggests that whale hip bones are under pressure from sexual selection.

2014年9月8日 · Comparing hundreds of whale and dolphin pelvic bones to their genitalia and mating style, researchers found that males from more promiscuous species had larger penises and larger pelvic bones.

2014年9月9日 · Far from being vestigial, whale hip bones play a key role in reproduction. The finding flies in the face of the assumption that the pelvic bones are useless. Not only do the bones serve a...