Scientists have discovered that once a mammal has become fully aquatic, it passes a threshold that makes a return to terrestrial landscapes almost impossible.
The chances of aquatic mammals — like orcas, dolphins and whales — ever evolving to live on land again are almost nonexistent, a new study has found. Researchers discovered that the adaptations that allowed these animals to live in water have passed an evolutionary threshold that marks the point of no return to terrestrial life.
The transition to land happened only once, yet the transition back to water has happened repeatedly — leading researchers to question whether aquatic mammals could readapt to terrestrial life, and if not, why? The researchers model examined the evolutionary relationships among species with branches indicating common ancestry. By comparing traits among these species, the researchers created models that estimated the probability of evolving specific traits.
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