Ancient whale tells tale of when baleen whales had teeth
36-million-year-old fossil belonged to oldest discovered member of group that includes humpbacks
WHALE IN TRANSITION The skull of Mystacodon, a 36-million-year-old whale found in Peru, is an early relative of today’s baleen whales. Its skull (shown here) has a flattened snout and a mouth full of teeth, which baleen whales later lost.
O. Lambert et al/Current Biology 2017
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