Dorudon Colouring Page

Dorudon atrox was a fully aquatic early whale that lived about 37 million years ago in warm Eocene seas. Many excellent fossils come from Wadi Al-Hitan in Egypt, a desert valley that was once underwater. Dorudon grew to about 4.5 to 5 metres, similar in length to a large modern dolphin but with a long toothed skull. Its forelimbs had become flippers, its body was streamlined, and it swam with a tail fluke. Tiny hind limbs remained near the pelvis, but they could not carry the animal on land. The nostrils had moved back along the skull compared with land mammals, though not as far as the blowholes of modern whales. Dorudon probably hunted fish and other marine prey. Fossil young with bite marks suggest the much larger Basilosaurus sometimes attacked it. Its average lifespan is unknown. The Dorudon lineage disappeared by the end of the Eocene, around 34 million years ago. Global cooling and changes in sea level, currents and marine ecosystems transformed the oceans, while new groups of toothed and baleen whales emerged. Scientists cannot prove a single extinction cause for Dorudon, and evolutionary relationships are more like branching bushes than a neat chain. No person witnessed the species and no last individual had a name. Dorudon is important because its complete skeleton shows a whale already committed to life at sea while still retaining tiny external hind limbs from land-dwelling ancestors. Colour Dorudon blue-grey, soft navy, slate, teal or brown-grey, using cream on the underside. Give the little hind limbs a slightly lighter colour so they are easy to spot near the tail. The water can be turquoise or pale blue, fish yellow or silver, seagrass green, and shells coral, peach or lavender. Use long curved strokes from the head toward the tail fluke, following the streamlined body. Short strokes fit around the teeth and flippers. Keep the teeth white and add a bright highlight around the eye. The simpler, shorter body should look clearly different from the very long Basilosaurus, making the two related ancient whales easy to compare.

◫ A4 size✎ Bold outlines♡ Ages 3–8

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