File:Wind erosion in Wadi Al-Hitan.jpg
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixels. Other resolutions: 320 × 240 pixels | 640 × 480 pixels | 1,024 × 768 pixels | 1,280 × 960 pixels | 2,560 × 1,920 pixels | 3,648 × 2,736 pixels.
Original file (3,648 × 2,736 pixels, file size: 2.47 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Captions
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents
Summary[edit]
| Description |
English: Wadi Al-Hitan is a very important fossil site that firmly establishes the fossil record of whale evolution from land mammals, one of Darwin's major assertions in The Origin of Species. The wadi hosts skeletons of families of archaic whales in their original geological and geographic setting of the shallow nutrient-rich bay of an early sea of some 30-40 million years ago, in what is now central Egypt.
There is no other place in the world yielding archaic whale fossils of such quality in such abundance and concentration -- over 400 cetacian skeletons have been discovered, the most important finds coming between 1985-1995. Many of the sirenians and cetaceans are preserved as virtually complete articulated skeletons which, uniquely, preserve reduced hind limbs, making them intermediate between earlier land mammals and later modern whales. In addition to the whale fossils, numerous other fossils of plant and animal life provide a rich picture of the ecology of the Tethyan Ocean during Eocene time, enabling interpretation of how animals then lived and how they were related to each other. These fossils are the subject of continuing study and are of iconic value for the study of evolutionary transition, and make the site vitally important as a niche in Earth's natural history. |
| Date | |
| Source | Wind erosion, Wadi Al-Hitan |
| Author | Tom Horton from Shanghai, China |
| Camera location |  | View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap |  |
|---|
Licensing[edit]
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
- You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
- Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
|
This image was originally posted to Flickr by Further to Fly at https://www.flickr.com/photos/12116760@N00/2368081579. It was reviewed on 20 May 2009 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. |
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 02:52, 20 May 2009 | | 3,648 × 2,736 (2.47 MB) | Tm (talk | contribs) | {{Information |Description= Wadi Al-Hitan is a very important fossil site that firmly establishes the fossil record of whale evolution from land mammals, one of Darwin's major assertions in The Origin of Species. The wadi hosts skeletons of families of ar |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
There are no pages that use this file.
File usage on other wikis
The following other wikis use this file:
- Usage on cs.wikipedia.org
- Usage on sh.wikipedia.org
- Usage on sk.wikipedia.org
