Variations on a Theme

This is a photo of a gray whale skeleton at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Whales are mammals, as are we. They breathe the air, have a bony skeleton, and give live birth among other things we have in common.


Be it evolution or creation the similarities are astounding to us.  Look at the pectoral fin on this skeleton. For the uninitiated that would be what appears as an arm.  Alive we would see a flat paddle shaped appendage, but look at this skeleton.  Do you see the fingers? Fingers on a whale?

Another view.  There's a scapula.  They have ribs and a spinal column, very much like our own. If you look very carefully and see the tiny triangular shaped bone hanging just below the last ribs you are looking at the vestige of a pelvic bone (and there are two).  


We mammals are like works of art created in an artists' workshop. The Instructor brought out a basic skeleton and asked the class of talented artists to create variations on the same theme. Each varied skeleton was then decorated to each artist's preference. Some mammals are furry while others are "naked as a jaybird". Take off our wrappings and we all have parts that correspond to the parts in every other mammal out there.
V says to me: "we are all related".  Looking at skeletons makes me believe.


In bocca al lupo (another mammalian relative) m & v