This crazy complete fossil of Basilosaurus isis was found in Wadi Hitan in Egypt in 2005. Basilosaurus isis is awesome because IT HAS LITTLE BACK LEGS and lacked a blow hole. Beautiful, beautiful evolution. It apparently was the first of the giant whales. Other species of the same genus have been found in the SE US, like in Alabama and Mississippi. It lived 40 to 34 million years ago and was super long and serpentine-like, with elongated fluid-filled vertebrae. I also learned while reading about this that boas have baby hind legs too! Male boas' are called spurs and are supposedly used for "clasping and tickling" during mating.
I realize that I have seen one of these guys at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. I recognize him from the picture of this fossil in the wikipedia page, linked to above. Sweet! Here is a picture I took of him. I'm pretty sure you can see his back legs in the picture! It makes me wonder what current whale skeletons look like.
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