Current Biology
Published November 29, 2018 (News release from Cell Press)
A 33-million-year-old fossil whale from Oregon had neither teeth nor baleen. Representing a surprising intermediate stage between modern filter-feeding whales and their toothed ancestors, Maiabalaena was a suction feeder. The findings suggest early whales lost their teeth before the evolutionary origin of comb-like baleen.
Corresponding author: Carlos Mauricio, National Museum of Natural History, Washington – CPeredo@masonlive.gmu.edu