Skeletal Transformations and the Origin of Baleen Whales (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti): A Study on Evolutionary Patterns
2022/03/18 by Michelangelo Bisconti, Giorgio Carnevale · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Anatomy #Baleen #Biology #Cephalopods and Marine Biology #Cetacea #Ecology #Marine and coastal plant biology #Marine animal studies overview #Paleontology #Postcrania #Rostrum #Skull #Whale #Zoology
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/d14030221
openalex publication_date 2022/03/18 · openalex created_date 2022/04/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
A review of the morphological patterns exhibited by all the main radiations of mysticete (baleen whale) cetaceans provided a broad assessment of the fundamental morphological transformations that occurred in the transition to the Mysticeti clade. Skull and postcranial characters were illustrated, described and compared, and their distribution was mapped on a combined phylogeny in the search for morphological support for the principal mysticete clades (i.e., Mysticeti, Chaeomysticeti and Balaenomorpha). In particular, characters of the skull (rostrum, vertex, temporal fossa, tympanic bulla and dentary) and the postcranial appendicular skeleton (scapula, humerus, radius and ulna) were all involved at different degrees in the process of morphological transformations leading to the modern-day mysticetes. Apart from a few typical characteristics of the rostrum that were already present in the earliest-diverging mysticetes (presence of lateral process of the maxilla, presence of multiple dorsal infraorbital foramina, thin lateral border of maxilla and presence of mesorostral groove), most of the other anatomical districts were unaffected by the transition so the earliest mysticetes show a number of archaeocete characters in the tympanic bulla, dentary and skull roof. The analysis of the whole dataset supported the hypothesis that the origin and evolution of mysticetes constituted a step-wise process and that the bauplan of the modern-day mysticetes was fully assembled at the level of the common ancestor of all Balaenomorpha.
Citations
- The Emergence of Whales
- From Problem Taxa to Problem Solver: A New Miocene Family, Tranatocetidae, Brings Perspective on Baleen Whale Evolution
- The systematics of right whales (Mysticeti: Balaenidae)
- Internal Mechanism of Rorqual Feeding
- Reconstructing Body Size in Extinct Crown Cetacea (Neoceti) Using Allometry, Phylogenetic Methods and Tests from the Fossil Record
- The More the Merrier? A Large Cladistic Analysis of Mysticetes, and Comments on the Transition from Teeth to Baleen
- The Taxonomic and Evolutionary History of Fossil and Modern Balaenopteroid Mysticetes
- The morphology and systematics of Mammalodon colliveri (Cetacea: Mysticeti), a toothed mysticete from the Oligocene of Australia
- From Teeth to Baleen and Raptorial to Bulk Filter Feeding in Mysticete Cetaceans: The Role of Paleontological, Genetic, and Geochemical Data in Feeding Evolution and Ecology
- A new species of rorqual whale (Cetacea, Mysticeti, Balaenopteridae) from the Late Miocene of the Southern North Sea Basin and the role of the North Atlantic in the paleobiogeography of Archaebalaenoptera
- The earliest baleen whale from the Mediterranean: large‐scale implications of an early Miocene thalassotherian mysticete from Piedmont, Italy
- A natural endocast of an early Miocene odontocete and its implications in cetacean brain evolution
- Neurovascular evidence for a co-occurrence of teeth and baleen in an Oligocene mysticete and the transition to filter-feeding in baleen whales
- Evolution of gigantism in right and bowhead whales (Cetacea: Mysticeti: Balaenidae)
- Archaebalaenoptera eusebioi, a new rorqual from the late Miocene of Peru (Cetacea, Mysticeti, Balaenopteridae) and its impact in reconstructing body size evolution, ecomorphology and palaeobiogeography of Balaenopteridae
- Morphological and Molecular Evidence for a Stepwise Evolutionary Transition from Teeth to Baleen in Mysticete Whales
- A new baleen whale (Mysticeti: Cetotheriidae) from the earliest late Miocene of Japan and a reconsideration of the phylogeny of cetotheres
- Gigantism Precedes Filter Feeding in Baleen Whale Evolution
- Tooth Loss Precedes the Origin of Baleen in Whales
Cited by
Related