Fossil Friday: huge, ancient dolphin was the first echolocating apex predator

[Judi Lynn]

This 15-meter-long dolphin was also the first predatory whale to use echolocation.

Alexandru Micu by Alexandru Micu July 10, 2020

The fossil of a 15-meter-long extinct species of dolphin is helping us better understand how different lineages of marine mammal independently evolved the same characteristics.



Skull and Skeleton of Ankylorhiza tiedemani.
Image credits Robert Boessenecker et al., (2020), Current Biology.

The species, christened Ankylorhiza tiedemani lived about 25 million years ago during the Oligocene in what today is South Carolina. It belonged to a group of large dolphins (Odontoceti) whose best-known modern representative is the orca (killer whale).

The anatomy of this fossil suggests that it was likely a top predator in its day. It shares several features with today’s baleen and toothed whales despite not being directly related to these groups, the authors report. This suggests that these animals evolved their shared swimming adaptations independently from one another, a phenomenon known as parallel evolution.

More:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/fossil-friday-huge-ancient-dolphin-2624/

[littlemissmartypants]

1. I love things like this. When I was in middle school I used to tell everyone

I was going to be a paleontologist. I ended up in the medical field but never lost my love of anatomy that I believe started in middle school with stories just like this.

Thanks Judi Lynn.

❤ lmsp