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intelligent than Chimpanzees, who were previously considered man's nearest rivals. 
The great whales have much bigger brains than men. Well, of course, they have 
much bigger bodies, but it is just possible that if we ever learn to communicate 
with them, and don't exterminate them before we can do so — and steps in the 
direction of learning to communicate with Dolphins are making progress — if we 
do learn to communicate with the great whales, we may find they regard us, as 
we regard, say, Rattlesnakes, as highly dangerous but not particularly bright 
creatures. We had better not be too conceited. 
One other group of Mammals, rather an anti-climax, deserves brief considera- 
tion. The Mustelidae — Stoat. Weasel, Mongoose, Otter, etc. — appear to be in an 
early stage of approaching a serpentine form. The legs have become small in 
comparison to the length of the body. Active running by leg movement tends to 
be replaced by what Lewis Carroll must have meant by gallumphing, a vertical 
folding and extension of the spine, with the legs used only to grip the ground. If 
they survive man's dominance for another one or two million years, surely some 
of their species will have lost limbs altogether and become mammalian serpents. 
To conclude, I hope I have shown how many different groups of vertebrates 
have survived loss of such apparently important features as limbs, and by making 
use of those compensating mutations they have received have made a success 
of life. 
