Abstract
Suction feeding preceded filtering in baleen whale evolution
Highlights
Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are the largest animals on Earth and owe their success to baleen, a unique feeding structure allowing them to filter vast quantities of small prey from seawater (Pivorunas, 1979; Werth, 2000b)
We show that tooth wear in a new Late Oligocene mysticete belonging to the putatively transitional family Aetiocetidae is inconsistent with the presence of baleen, and instead indicative of suction feeding
Baleen rarely fossilises (Esperante et al, 2008; Gioncada et al, 2016), but is thought to have originated early in mysticete evolution, during a transitional phase combining tooth-based raptorial feeding and baleen-assisted filtering (Deméré and Berta, 2008; Deméré et al, 2008). This transition is seemingly exemplified by the Aetiocetidae – a mostly Oligocene (34–23 Ma) family of archaic mysticetes which retained functional teeth alongside features commonly associated with filter feeding (Deméré et al, 2008)
Summary
Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are the largest animals on Earth and owe their success to baleen, a unique feeding structure allowing them to filter vast quantities of small prey from seawater (Pivorunas, 1979; Werth, 2000b). Baleen rarely fossilises (Esperante et al, 2008; Gioncada et al, 2016), but is thought to have originated early in mysticete evolution, during a transitional phase combining tooth-based raptorial feeding and baleen-assisted filtering (Deméré and Berta, 2008; Deméré et al, 2008). This transition is seemingly exemplified by the Aetiocetidae – a mostly Oligocene (34–23 Ma) family of archaic mysticetes which retained functional teeth alongside features commonly associated with filter feeding (Deméré et al, 2008). We show that a new Late Oligocene aetiocetid fossil from
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