If you erased a scientists' memory of all knowledge of the Cetaceans, made casts of the bones of the various Delphinades family and tagged them with a sequence of dates, I expect that the scientist would not be able to class them into more than one or two species without knowledge of the soft parts. Larger differences in morphology that assist in classifying living organisms are generally absent from the fossils, because normally only the hard parts fossilize.
Added: the scientist would only recognize 'stasis' in a fossil record put together the way you suggest.
Added: the scientist would only recognize 'stasis' in a fossil record put together the way you suggest.
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