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Mysticetes are also known as baleen whales for their baleen, which they use to sieve plankton and other small organisms from the water. The term "baleen" ( Middle English baleyn, ballayne, ballien, bellane , etc.) is an archaic word for "whale", which came from Old French baleine , derived from the Latin word balæna , derived itself from the ...
Thus, Aetiocetus represents the transition from teeth to baleen in Oligocene mysticetes. Baleen is a highly derived character, or synapomorphy, of mysticetes, and is a keratinous structure that grows from the palate, or roof of the mouth, of the whale. The presence of baleen is inferred from the fossil record in the skull of Aetiocetus.
Mysticetes are also known for their gigantism, as baleen whales are among the largest organisms to ever have lived; they reach lengths greater than 20 m and weigh more than 100,000 kg. [44] This gigantism is directly related to their feeding mechanism – mysticete size has been found to be dependent on the amount of baleen a mysticete can use ...
Neobalaenidae is a family of baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti) including the extant pygmy right whale.Although traditionally considered related to balaenids, recent studies by Fordyce and Marx (2013) and Ludovic Dutoit and colleagues (2023) have recovered the living pygmy right whale as a member of Cetotheriidae, making it the only extant cetotheriid.
After its description by Brant in 1872, Cetotheriidae was used as a wastebasket taxon for baleen whales which were not assignable to extant whale families. [2]Comparing the cranial and mandibular morphology of 23 taxa (including late archaeocetes and both fossil and extant mysticetes), [3] Bouetel & Muizon 2006 found Cetotheriidae in this traditional sense to be polyphyletic.
Coen Elemans, from the University of Southern Denmark, led a team that studied the carcasses of three whales that had died after being stranded, representing three different baleen whale species ...
The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have had their last common ancestor around 34 million years ago. Mysticetes include four extant (living) families: Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), and Eschrichtiidae (the
Some of the largest plankton are krill and feed the largest of animals, baleen whales. My first foray into the scientific world was a job sexing Jassa falcata (a tiny amphipod) under a microscope ...