[Dog Gone]

Cool, because some FORMER evolutionary thought included the idea that whales might have had ancestors as LARGE as a bear, Phyllis is justified in her statement.

I really wish she'd retire. Her statements are far too subject to impartial ridicule.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Bear-sized placemarker.

[Ichneumon]

Cool, because some FORMER evolutionary thought included the idea that whales might have had ancestors as LARGE as a bear, Phyllis is justified in her statement.

Oh, it's *worse* than that. Read carefully what "The Ghost of FReepers Past" *actually* quoted:

"The paleontologists thought that ancient whales were members of an extinct group of highly-specialized ungulates (hoofed mammals) called mesonychians. Mesonychians were meat eaters and ranged in size from the size of weasels to grizzly bears."

Note that it doesn't even say that whales descended *from* "grizzly bears", it simply says that they descended from animals that were sometimes as *LARGE* as grizzly bears.

So no, not even "former evolutionary thought" had postulated whales descending from bears, as Schafly incorrect asserts.