Fossils of one of the oldest relatives to baleen-bearing whales have been described from Antarctica. Aspects of its anatomy cast doubt on conventional views for the evolution of filter-feeding and body size in whales.
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Variation in whale (Cetacea) inner ear anatomy reveals the early evolution of "specialized" high-frequency hearing sensitivity.
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December 2024
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA.
As fully aquatic mammals, hearing is arguably the most important sensory component of cetaceans. Increasingly, researchers have been harnessing computed tomography (CT) to investigate the details of the inner ear as they can provide clues to the hearing abilities of whales. We use microCT scans of a broad sampling of the ear bones (periotics) of primarily toothed whales (Odontoceti) to investigate the inner ear bony labyrinth shape and reconstruct hearing sensitivities among these cetaceans, including several taxa about which little is currently known.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA Comparative Genomics Approach to Understanding the Evolution of Olfaction in Cetaceans.
J Mol Evol
December 2024
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, Private Bag 92169, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand.
Major evolutionary transitions, such as the shift of cetaceans from terrestrial to marine life, can put pressure on sensory systems to adapt to a new set of relevant stimuli. Relatively little is known about the role of smell in the evolution of mysticetes (baleen whales). While their toothed cousins, the odontocetes, lack the anatomical features to smell, it is less clear whether baleen whales have retained this sense, and if so, when the pressure on olfaction diverged in the cetacean evolutionary lineage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA review of New Zealand Eomysticetidae (Mammalia, Cetacea) and implications for the evolution of baleen whales: new specimens, functional anatomy, and phylogeny.
J R Soc N Z
February 2024
Department of Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Article Synopsis
- * The most significant discoveries of these fossils come from New Zealand's Kokoamu Greensand and Otekaike Limestone, revealing some of the largest and oldest eomysticetid specimens.
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Strontium isotopes reveal a globally unique assemblage of Early Miocene baleen whales.
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March 2024
Department of Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
The earliest Miocene (Aquitanian, 23-20 Ma) remains a critically under-sampled 'dark age' in cetacean evolution. This is especially true of baleen whales (mysticetes), Aquitanian specimens of which remain almost entirely unknown. Across the globe, the nature of the cetacean fossil record radically shifts at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary, with mysticetes and some archaic odontocete lineages suddenly disappearing despite the availability of cetacean-bearing rock units.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new genus and species of kekenodontid from the late Oligocene of New Zealand with comments on the evolution of tooth displacement in Cetacea.
J R Soc N Z
January 2024
Department of Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Article Synopsis
- The Kekenodontidae are a group of late-surviving prehistoric whales known as archaeocetes from the Late Oligocene period found in the Southwest Pacific, including a newly identified species from New Zealand.
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