Some scientists speculate whales descended from deerlike critter

WASHINGTON -- The gigantic ocean-dwelling whale may have evolved from a land animal the size of a small raccoon, new research suggests.

What might be the missing evolutionary link between whales and land animals is an odd animal that looks like a long-tailed deer without antlers or an overgrown long-legged rat, fossils indicate.

The creature is called Indohyus, and recently unearthed fossils reveal some crucial evolutionary similarities between it and water-dwelling cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins.

For years, the hippo has been the leading candidate for the closest land relative because of its similar DNA and whalelike features. So some scientists were skeptical of the new hypothesis by Hans Thewissen, an anatomy professor whose work was being published today in the journal Nature.

Newer fossils point to the deer-like Indohyus as a "missing link" to the sister species to ancient whales, said Thewissen, a professor at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.