Salishicetus meadi, a new aetiocetid from the late Oligocene of Washington State and implications for feeding transitions in early mysticete evolution.

ABSTRACT: Living baleen whales, or Mysticeti, lack teeth and instead feed using keratinous baleen plates to sieve prey-laden water. This feeding strategy is profoundly different from that of their toothed ancestors, which processed prey using the differentiated dentition characteristic of mammals. The fossil record of mysticetes reveals stem members that include extinct taxa with dentition, illuminating the morphological states that preceded the loss of teeth and the subsequent origin of baleen. The relationships among stem mysticetes, including putative clades such as Mammalodontidae and Aetiocetidae, remain debatable. Aetiocetids are among the more species-rich clade of stem mysticetes, and known only from fossil localities along the North Pacific coastline. Here, we report a new aetiocetid, Salis

SUBMITTER: Peredo CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5936946 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature