Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Marx FG
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5522891 | biostudies-other | 2017 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Marx Felix G FG Collareta Alberto A Gioncada Anna A Post Klaas K Lambert Olivier O Bonaccorsi Elena E Urbina Mario M Bianucci Giovanni G
Journal of anatomy 20170524 2
Baleen is a comb-like structure that enables mysticete whales to bulk feed on vast quantities of small prey, and ultimately allowed them to become the largest animals on Earth. Because baleen rarely fossilises, extremely little is known about its evolution, structure and function outside the living families. Here we describe, for the first time, the exceptionally preserved baleen apparatus of an entirely extinct mysticete morphotype: the Late Miocene cetotheriid, Piscobalaena nana, from the Pisc ...[more]