Less genes for a life in water

While whales and dolphins spend their entire life in the ocean, these air-breathing mammals actually evolved from terrestrial species. The transition from land to water in the ancestors of modern whales and dolphins about 50 million years ago was accompanied by profound anatomical, physiological, and behavioral adaptations that facilitated life in water. However, which changes in the DNA underlie these adaptations remains incompletely understood. To reveal them, researchers at the Max Planck Institutes of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and for the Physics of Complex Systems as well as the Center for Systems Biology Dresden systematically searched for genes that were lost in the ancestor of today's whales and dolphins. The research team discovered 85 gene losses, some of which likely helped whales to thrive in their new habitat.

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