We also show that morphology can predict suction feeding in toothed whales, which has implications for inferring suction feeding in the fossil record.

New pub! @peerj.bsky.social
@paleodm.bsky.social

We quantify morphological specialization and show that the parallel evolution of specialized suction feeding in toothed whales did not result in convergence on skull shape.

peerj.com/articles/211...

New paper out in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: we apply linguistic tools to sperm whale vowels.

The result: sperm whale vowels do not just look like human vowels. They also behave like them.

We found several parallels. Like in Latin, whales have short and long vowels.

I have always struggled with the use of call playback in birds. I reviewed the published evidence & wrote "Ethical Use of Call Playback" together with Dave Bakewell & Andrew Whitehouse. Was surprised at what the data shows. malaysianbird.report/wp-content/u...

Sperm whales caught headbutting each other on camera for the first time Drone footage has revealed sperm whales headbutting each other—something scientists had only speculated about until now. Surprisingly, it’s younger whales doing it, not the giant males researchers…

Sperm whales caught headbutting each other on camera for the first time

Long bone variability in true seals (Mammalia, Phocidae), with implications for understanding their fossil record Historically, humeri and femora have been treated as diagnostic elements for fossil phocid (Carnivora, Pinnipedia, Phocidae) identification. This resulted in the naming of a plethora of extinct phoci...

New lab paper, this time on phocid limb morphometrics! Lead by former EDDyLab postdoc Dr. Leonard Dewaele, with @narimanechatar.bsky.social, Prof. Mark Uhen, master student Jacques Klassen, and yours truly

anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🐬🦷 A new study by Mathes et al on the harbor porpoise reveals that, even with their simple, uniform teeth, toothed whales follow the same developmental stages as other mammals, from early epithelial thickening to full tooth formation.
Read more: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Partial cranium of the balaenid Balaenella brachyrhynus Bisconti, 2005 A. RBINS M.2344 (Kattendijk Formation, Lower Pliocene; Vrasenedok, Belgium), right lateral view: photograph (A1), explanatory line drawing (A2), dorsal view: photograph (A3), explanatory line drawing (A4), posterodorsal (A5) and anterior (A6) views. B. NMB 42001 holotype (Kattendijk Formation, Lower Pliocene, Waaslandkanaal, Belgium), 3D model in right lateral (B1) and dorsal (B2) views provided for comparison. Grey shading indicates main parts covered with sediment; hatching, main break surfaces; red lines, shark bites marks; small blue spot, shark tooth tip interpreted as belonging to the bluntnose sixgill shark Hexanchus griseus (Bonnaterre, 1788); red rectangles in A, the location of detailed photos shown in Figure 3; red rectangles in B, the corresponding preserved part in RBINS M.2344. Bite mark types (TI–V) follow Collareta et al. (2017a). Scale bars 100 mm.

Fig. 4. A, C, D. Monodontid Casatia sp. (RBINS M.1922) from Kattendijk Formation, Lower Pliocene, Vrasenedok, Belgium. A. Partial cranium in dorsal view (A1), detail of the rostrum base in dorsal view: photograph (A2), explanatory line drawing (A3). C. Fragment of the occipital shield in posterior view: photograph (C1), explanatory drawing (C2). D. Proximal part of a single-headed rib in lateral view: photograph (D1), explanatory drawing (D2). B. 3D model of the cranium of the Recent beluga Delphinapterus leucas Pallas, 1776 (USNM 305071) in dorsal (B1) and posterior (B2) views; to indicate the position of the preserved parts (model downloaded from Phenome10k). Red lines, shark bites marks; small blue spot, shark tooth tip interpreted as belonging to the extinct lamnid shark Carcharodon plicatilis (Agassiz, 1843). Bite mark types (TI–V) follow Collareta et al. (2017a). Scale bars A1, B, 100 mm; A2, A3, C, D, 50 mm.

Reconstructed bite sequence corresponding to the set of parallel bite marks observed on the occipital shield of the balaenid Balaenella brachyrhynus Bisconti, 2005 (RBINS M.2344). The shark tooth best matching the bite marks is the large (first) lower tooth of the bluntnose sixgill shark Hexanchus griseus (Bonnaterre, 1788) (RBINS P.968, the Neogene of Antwerp). The proposed sequence includes: (I) contact of the principal cusp and at least five distal cusplets with the supraoccipital bone, followed by a movement of the shark’s jaws towards the right side of the whale cranium and at an angle with the tooth’s mesiodistal axis, (II) break of the tip of the principal cusp, with the tip remaining stuck in compact bone and related local broadening of the main bite mark, and (III) only the truncated principal cusp retains a contact with the bone, together with the more mesial part of the tooth crown, creating an additional mark posterior to the mark made by the principal cusp. The cranium of the holotype of B. brachyrhynus (NMB 42001) is shown in the same orientation to illustrate the position of the bite marks (red rectangle) and the direction of the bite. Large arrows, the proposed direction for the movement of the shark tooth; small arrows, the orientation of the whale cranium; red lines, shark bite marks; blue spot, broken shark tooth tip embedded in whale bone. Scale bar for the cranium 100 mm; interpretive drawings not to scale.

🧵OK it's time for some catch up on recent papers in marine mammal paleontology. First up, out yesterday - bite marks on dwarf baleen whale and a beluga from the early Pliocene (3-4 myo) of Belgium, Lambert et al. 1/ www.app.pan.pl/article/item...

Thank you!

We describe a bit of lower jaw and associated teeth from southern California. This occurrence fills a gap in the geographic range of toothed baleen whales in the North Pacific.

New evidence of a toothed mysticete from the Vaqueros Formation of California fills a gap in the palaeobiogeographic range of Aetiocetidae Abstract. Extant baleen whales (Mysticeti) are toothless aquatic predators that use keratinous baleen plates to capture and filter smaller prey. Although a

New pub! @royalsocietypublishing.org

New evidence of a toothed mysticete from the Vaqueros Formation of California fills a gap in the palaeobiogeographic range of Aetiocetidae url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

This is amazing.

When the government kills a crucial report, independent scientists decide to write it anyway and release it outside of government channels.

That’s science serving society, even when our political leaders don’t.

Storm-induced mass mortality results in both immediate and long-term consequences for a migratory songbird Nature Ecology & Evolution - Combining 27 years of citizen science data with whole-genome sequencing, the authors show that mass mortality of purple martins caused by a severe winter...

Spring is arriving, but there's still snow in the forecast! How do late #winter storms affect our migratory #birds? Out now in @natecoevo.nature.com, we ask that Q with 25+yrs of #CitizenScience data and ~400 museum specimens collected after the 2021 Great TX Freeze: rdcu.be/e7aUy
#EcoEvo #evolution

Opinion | Science Keeps Changing. So Why Should We Trust It?

Science Keeps Changing. So Why Should We Trust It? www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/o...

2025 in review: advances in marine mammal paleontology It's time for the end of the year roundup - for a while I wasn't so sure that 2025 was going to have that long a list of papers, but we en...

🧵Happy New Year! 2025 ended up being a decent year for marine mammal paleontology - loads of new fossil whales and dolphins, a couple of sea cow studies, but a bit light on pinnipeds and archaeocetes. Read my new blog here, and this thread for some of this year's highlights! 🧪🐬🦖

Cranial variation of Lutra lutra (Carnivora: Mustelidae) across the Palaearctic: taxonomic and management implications Abstract. The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) exhibits the widest range among the Lutrinae, encompassing 11 extant subspecies across Eurasia and North Africa.

Really great to see people quantifying morphological variation across the range of an extant taxon. I saw another paper recently about variation in extant iguanas. It gives us a baseline for what to expect in fossil species academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Max’s New Gould paper — Extinct My new paper in Paleobiology (OA), on some lesser known aspects of the early history of punctuated equilibria, is available to read online. It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my older work on ...

My new Gould paper is out today in Paleobiology (OA)! It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my historical work on Stephen Jay Gould’s early career, which explores the curious position of punctuated equilibria in his early vision for evolutionary paleontology

www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...

New research out! 🐬

We tested 16 NZ toothed whale species to see if habitat predicts PFAS levels.

Results:
• Habitat = weak predictor
• Sex & age = stronger predictors
• Even remote oceans aren’t safe from PFAS

doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...
#PFAS #MarineScience #Cetaceans #MAVELab #CERG

Paleo folks: Please recommend researchers (incl yourselves) interested in phylogenetic reconstruction in deep time, molecular clocks (discord w/ fossil clocks), foundational/methodological issues in phylo/paleo-reconstruction & who'd be interested in hanging w/ historians & philosophers of science ⚒️

This feels mandatory

@rjstrauch.bsky.social investigate the mandibular symphysis in whales. Toothed whales exhibited unfused, partially fused, or fully fused symphyses, while baleen whales evolved a decoupled, highly mobile symphysis that represents a novel condition unobserved in other mammalian clades.

I had a wonderful time at #2025SVP in Birmingham, UK! Gave a talk about suction feeding in fossil odontocetes (“toothed whales”). I thoroughly enjoyed the numerous insightful, engaging conversations I had with colleagues throughout the meeting. Looking forward to Cleveland next year!

This is figure 5, which shows CIRBP overexpression extends lifespan and enhances DNA damage resistance in Drosophila.

The remarkably long lifespan of bowhead whales could be due to an increased ability to repair DNA mutations, according to research in Nature. go.nature.com/4hzvDN7 🌏 🧪

First-Ever Footage Shows Killer Whales Attacking Great White Shark Nursery An orca pod has been spotted for the first time repeatedly targeting and flipping young great white sharks onto their backs to paralyze and dismember them

An orca pod has been spotted for the first time repeatedly targeting and flipping young great white sharks onto their backs to paralyze and dismember them

My newest publication is out in @peerj.bsky.social! In this collaboration with Ana Valenzuela, Nick Pyenson & Mario Suarez we describe the most complete skeleton of the #AquaticSloth - #Thalassocnus - from #Chile!
Artwork by @alexboersma-art.bsky.social
1/6
#FossilFriday
peerj.com/articles/198...

Tying the knot between morphology and development: using the patterning cascade model between cheek teeth to study the evolution of molarization in hoofed mammals - Journal of Mammalian Evolution Hoofed mammal premolars show a range of occlusal crown morphology from molariform to caniniform, and the position of taxa on this spectrum can be described as the relative molarization of the premolars. Molarized premolars function together with the molars in grinding mastication in which these unique premolars appear. The degree of molarization varies across dietary ecologies, which has led to cheek tooth morphology being designated as an important contributor to dietary predictions in extant and extinct taxa. Recent research into mammalian occlusal cheek tooth patterning have found independent patterning mechanisms of the premolars and molars. A research gap exists in understand how molarization of the premolars has occurred so frequently in hoofed mammals if these dental regions are independent in their patterning. In this study, we tested the application of the patterning cascade model to the lower premolar-molar boundary in hoofed mammals using a geometric morphometrics framework. We used 2D geometric morphometrics to study occlusal cuspid covariation at the lower p4-m1 boundaries of 16 artiodactyl and 18 perissodactyl species. Phylogenetically informed modularity analyses were used to test alternate a priori hypotheses originating from evolutionary, developmental, and functional considerations of cheek tooth morphogenesis. Our results showed artiodactyls and perissodactyls differ significantly in their p4-m1 boundary covariation patterns, which we hypothesize could be caused by heterochronic shifts between premolar and molar development. To our knowledge, our study is the first to contribute a comprehensive yet accessible 2D geometric morphometric method to further investigate the evolution of molarized premolars.

Ashbaugh, A.J., Jamniczky, H.A. & Theodor, J.M. Tying the knot between morphology and development: using the patterning cascade model between cheek teeth to study the evolution of molarization in hoofed mammals. J Mammal Evol 32, 23 (2025). doi.org/10.1007/s109...

Handbook of the Historiography of the Earth and Environmental Sciences This open access handbook assesses the historiography and the future of major themes and approaches within the history of the earth sciences.

Very happy to announce that the Handbook of the Historiography of Earth and Environmental Sciences I coedited with Elena Aronova and Marco Tamborini is now available, for free (open access) via this link:
link.springer.com/referencewor...

Frontiers | A global review of operational fishery interactions with killer whales (Orcinus orca): dynamics, impacts, and management strategies Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are cosmopolitan, apex predators that sometimes interact with commercial fisheries. These fishery interactions can affect killer...

Frontiers | A global review of operational fishery interactions with killer whales (Orcinus orca): dynamics, impacts, and management strategies

A big shout out to my coauthors @jakeberv.bsky.social @paleodm.bsky.social and everyone who made this work possible @miamiuniversity.bsky.social

Whales span a range of symphyseal morphologies, varying in degree of mobility (fusion) and length (elongation). In this paper, we examine the evolution of these traits across whale phylogeny and geologic time.