cetaceans

Wadi Al Hitan, the Valley of the Whales, is a site that’s yielded dozens of skeletons of the early predatory whales Basilosaurus and Dorudon over the last hundred years. Newly uncovered specimens support the idea that it was a calving ground for the dolphin-sized Dorudon, and that those calves were hunted by the much larger Basilosaurus.

A fossil whale collected by a group of undergrads from a drainage ditch two decades ago has turned out to be an important transition from archaic to modern species. This and three other newly discovered specimens of Albertocetus, an early dolphin-like species, provide important anatomical information about the earliest ancestors of the living toothed whale lineage.

Baleen whales underwent a number of evolutionary transitions on the journey from small hunters to giant filter-feeders. Recent research shows that there were a large number of experimental methods of feeding, including the origin of filter feeding long before the origin of baleen.

Although living sperm whales focus on squid, ten-million-year-old fossils from Peru show that ancient sperm whales were top predators. They ate primarily marine mammals, and filled niches once occupied by mosasaurs and currently filled by orcas.

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus), spanish word for little cow, inherited the title of the most endangered cetacean in the world from the baiji or Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) which is believed to have gone extinct by 2006.

A tiny new species of whale is filling the gaps of the family tree, providing clues to how baleen evolved and how they became the giants they are today.

Today’s beaked whales (Ziphiidae) dive hundreds of meters to chase after their prey: seafloor-living squids, fishes, and crustaceans. However, one remarkable fossil suggests an ancestral species of these whales found its food near the water’s surface.

A team of researchers from the University of Otago created a comprehensive guide to the history of baleen whales based on the most complete family tree ever made for the group.

How did whales become one of the few groups of mammals to go back into the sea? Ambulocetus bridges the gap between small terrestrial ancestors and the sea-faring behemoths more recognizable as whales.

Twenty-five million year old rocks in New Zealand have yielded two species of archaic baleen whale. These whales, both members of the genus Tohoraata, retained teeth at the tips of their jaws in addition to baleen.