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I've been thinking about this one, but I can't seem to find what causes this difference.

All fishes that I've seen have their tail fin positioned vertical:

Fish

But all the marine mammals I know have their tail positioned horizontal:

Dolphin

Why is there this difference? Is it because it's mammals compared to fish? Or could fish as well have horizontal tail fins?

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1 Answer

up vote 9 down vote accepted

Cetaceans (i.e., marine mammals) evolved from certain ancient land based mammals, thus the tail is essentially convergent evolution of the tail function.

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