A cast of the skull of Prosqualodon davidis. The skull has a short snout, large jaw muscle fossae, and multicuspate triangular double-rooted teeth.

An original photograph of the skull of Prosqualodon davidis. The skull has a short snout, large jaw muscle fossae, and multicuspate triangular double-rooted teeth.

An original photograph of the skull of Prosqualodon davidis. The skull has a short snout, large jaw muscle fossae, and multicuspate triangular double-rooted teeth.

#fossilfriday Cast of the holotype skull of Prosqualodon davidis, a large short-snouted early diverging 'dolphin' from the lower Miocene of Tasmania. The skull was lost at some point in the mid 20th century - all that survives are casts and original photographs of the specimen. #whaleontology

Two inner ear bones, periotic bones, in dorsal and ventral view. They are dark brown and have three lobes: the anterior process, posterior process, and the dome-like pars cochlearis which houses the cochlea

#whalewednesday some rather large inner ear bones (periotics) of dolphins from the Pliocene Purisima Formation at Santa Cruz, CA. These specimens are so much larger than typical specimens that we assigned these to some sort of pilot whale (Globicephalinae). #whaleontology #coastalpaleo

Juvenile fossil sperm whale skeleton hanging in a museum atrium; the skull is large with a pointed snout and a large satellite dish-like supracranial basin, and short, stout flipper bones; the lower half of the skeleton is covered by a metal mesh approximating the shape of the animal when alive. The vertebral column is in a gentle S-curve.

Juvenile fossil sperm whale skeleton hanging in a museum atrium; the skull is large with a pointed snout and a large satellite dish-like supracranial basin. The rostrum is sculpted, and about 20 small pointed teeth are present in each quadrant.

Juvenile fossil sperm whale skeleton hanging in a museum atrium; the skull is large with a pointed snout and a large satellite dish-like supracranial basin, and short, stout flipper bones; the lower half of the skeleton is covered by a metal mesh approximating the shape of the animal when alive. The vertebral column is in a gentle S-curve.

#fossilfriday Skeleton of an Aulophyseter morricei calf, an extinct sperm whale from the middle Miocene Sharktooth Hill Bonebed of California, on display at @nhm.org. This is one of the closest extinct relatives of the modern giant sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus. #whaleontology

A photo of me snorkeling in a black wetsuit with a whale shark behind me. You can make out its square head and the spotted pattern.

A photo of the head of the shark and the left pectoral fin gliding over the rippled sandy bottom. Several remoras are attached to the shark above its fin.

Two snorkelers relaxing at the surface after diving with the giant shark - Joe El Adli on the left and me on the right

A photo from in front of a whale shark showing its mouth wide open as rays of sunlight cascade down from above.

Some more photos from Baja - on our last day Joe El Adli and I fit in some snorkeling on the tail end of our #whaleontology expedition to see whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). It was nothing short of life changing. This one was about 8-9 meters - medium sized! More photos coming soon! 🤿🦑

Paleontology talk - Fossil whales and dolphins of the Pacific northwest and origin of baleen Just before Valentine's Day I was invited by my colleague Dr. Win McLaughlin to fly up to Coos Bay, Oregon, for a few days to give a talk ...

#whaleontology 🐬🦖New blog post - public lecture on the evolution of whales and dolphins revealed by fossils from the Pacific Northwest, and the origin of baleen. Full recorded lecture is up on youtube! Read the post, and watch the video, here:

An light tan colored fossil earbone of an extinct baleen whale measuring about 7 cm long, next to a scale bar. It is heart shaped.

Two ear bones of a fossil baleen whale in dorsal view. They are heart shaped, and the tympanic cavity is evident in this view.

Happy #ValentinesDay! ❤️ Here is the heart-shaped earbone (tympanic bulla) of the early baleen whale Eomysticetus whitmorei from the Oligocene epoch of South Carolina. #whaleontology 🐬🦖

A diagram showing fossil and modern baleen whales and toothed whales, with representative skulls; Basilosaurus is shown as the common ancestor of both lineages. Coronodon, Aetiocetus, Fucaia, and Maiabalaena are all baleen whales present, leading to modern Balaenoptera; Xenorophus, Simocetus, Olympicetus, Eosqualodon are shown leading to the modern bottlenose dolphin Tursiops.

#fossilfriday On Tuesday I gave a guest lecture at Southwestern Oregon Community College on the evolution of whales and dolphins, with an emphasis on fossils from Oregon and Washington (Aetiocetus, Simocetus). Here is one of my nicer slides from the presentation. #whaleontology 🐬🦖

The skull of Niparajacetus palmadentis in dorsal view. The skull has a long triangular snout, large temporal fossae, and rather large orbits. Both mandibles are still in articulation.

The holotype skull of Niparajacetus palmadentis in lateral view. The skull is relatively long and low, with a robust squamosal.

The unusual teeth of Niparajacetus - they are large, triangular, with elongate triangular cusps - unlike most other toothed baleen whales, except perhaps for Llanocetus.

#fossilfriday Since I'm in Baja looking for more Oligocene whales - here is the holotype skull of the toothed baleen whale Niparajacetus palmadentis - Oligocene El Cien Formation, Baja California Sur, Mexico. #whaleontology

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...

2025 is almost over, which means it's time for my annual comprehensive review of this year's papers in marine mammal paleontology! Check out my new #blog post here:🐬🦖🧪 #whaleontology #paleontology #science

Yours truly standing in front of a cliff with a large hole dug out of the side

A photo of a tan cliff over a beach with a large hole in its face.

Visited my old whale hole yesterday

In summer 2005 I excavated a ~2.5 myo fossil whale skull which I later (2013) named as a new species, Balaenoptera bertae. Purisima Formation, northern CA. #whaleontology

The fossil record of early cetaceans from New Zealand, 2: baleen-bearing whales from the Oligocene and early Miocene For an introduction to the geology, stratigraphy, archaeocetes, and toothed mysticetes of mid-Cenozoic Zealandia, see part 1 here. For part ...

New blog post! Fossil whales from New Zealand, part 2: baleen whales! I review the eomysticetid whales reported in my various doctoral thesis publications as well as Mauicetus, Horopeta, and others. #whaleontology 🦖🐋🧪

The fossil record of early cetaceans from New Zealand, 1: introduction, archaeocetes, and toothed mysticetes This is part 1 of the fossil record of early cetaceans of New Zealand, with an introduction to the stratigraphy and geology, and the archaeo...

New #blog post series this month! All about the fossil record of early whales and dolphins from New Zealand, informed by the research of my Ph.D. adviser, the late Prof. R. Ewan Fordyce & his students. First up: intro to NZ stratigraphy and the archaeocetes & toothed baleen whales. #whaleontology

A photo of me in jeans and a blue fleece with a mug of coffee and a 1.5 meter long blue rectangular case for a pair of 1500 mm calipers. UC Berkeley campus is just behind the hedge across the street from me

When you study whales, you need a whale-sized set of calipers to measure them! I felt a little ridiculous walking around downtown Berkeley with this enormous set of 1500 mm calipers. #whaleontology

A new Herpetocetus specimen awaiting excavation During a field day in May of 2023, I was out scouting for fossils and came across an interesting bit of skull in a horizontal rock face belo...

New blog post: tracking the slow exposure and erosion of a small fossil baleen whale skull in the Pliocene Purisima Formation on the northern California coast. This is the fifth skull of the dwarf baleen whale Herpetocetus that I've discovered, and still need to dig up! #whaleontology 🧪🦖🐬

A well-preserved molar of an extinct dolphin with dark brown enamel and a tan root; the crown is triangular with several accessory cusps. The lingual side has several short vertical ridges. The mesial edge of the tooth is serrated.

#fossilfriday I find early whale and dolphin teeth to be quite beautiful and unusual. This is a lower molar of an extinct, as-yet unnamed simocetid dolphin (?Olympicetus) from the early Oligocene Makah Formation of Washington, USA. Acid prepared; collected by Jim Goedert. 🦖🐬 #whaleontology

The paltry fossil record of narwhals (Monodon) and the evolutionary history of white whales Narwhals are certainly among the strangest and most immediately recognizable of all marine mammals, owing to their fantastic tusk. Narwhals ...

NEW blog post! The evolution and fossil record of narwhals and belugas - the white whales! Emphasis on the surprising fossil record of belugas and the evolution of the bizarre tusk in the weirdest modern cetacean. 🐬🧪🦖 #whaleontology Read it here: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-...

A watercolor painting of a toothed baleen whale skull in side view. The jaws are closed, and the skull has a rather large eye socket; the nose is still quite far out on the snout. There are a series of mostly conical teeth that interlock like a crocodile.

New #watercolor - the skull that launched a thousand papers - Aetiocetus weltoni, the ~25 myo toothed baleen whale that likely had teeth and baleen - from the Oligocene of Oregon. I started this last winter and only finally finished it yesterday. 🐡 🦖🐬 #sciart #whaleontology #whalewednesday #art

Life restoration of Phiomicetus anubis, a walking whale, going after a sawfish.

The original skull, mandible, and skeleton of Phiomicetus anubis, a walking whale from the Eocene of Egypt.

Phiomicetus anubis turns 4 today! So proud of the little guy 🥹P. anubis is a 42-43 million year old "walking whale" from the Fayum desert of Egypt. #whaleontology 🧪🦖

3D model of the reconstructed skeleton of Megabalaena. The posterior skull, partial mandible, left flipper, and much of the vertebral column and ribcage are preserved.

The skull and mandible of Megabalaena. The skull is quite wide, like modern right whales, and the lower jaw is very large, and must have been about three meters long. Steepness of the braincase indicates the rostrum would have been arched like modern rights and bowheads.

Bonus #whaleontology #fossilfriday: Introducing the new right whale Megabalaena sapporoensis from the upper Miocene of Japan! About 12-13 meters long - at the small end of extant right whales (Eubalaena). Described by my NZ office mate Yoshi Tanaka et al. palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...

Skull fragment in a concretion just placed into an acid bath. It looks like a dark brown and gray rock with patches of white calcareous algae on it. The dark brown is bone, and the gray is sandstone. Many bubbles of carbon dioxide are being released by the acid dissolution.

The same specimen after about two months of acid preparation. A little more bone is exposed, and about a centimeter of the rock has been dissolved away.

After about six months in acid most of the bone is exposed and there is a little bit of rock left.

Studio photo of the specimen fully prepared; the entire fossa that the inner ear bone sits in is prepared and the earbone is freed from the skull, and had to be stuck here with a small lump of modelling clay. There is a 10 cm scale bar - the entire fossil is only about 15 cm long.

#fossilfriday Acid prep finished! Here's a time series of 7 months of acid baths for this dwarf baleen whale (Herpetocetus) auditory region, including a nicely preserved periotic (inner ear bone)- now ready for study. Latest Miocene (5-6 mya) Purisima Formation, Santa Cruz, CA. 🦖🧪🐬 #whaleontology

The periotic or inner ear bone of an allodelphinid dolphin. The bone looks like it has two lobes, the anterior process and the dome-like pars cochlearis, and perforated by a number of foramina. The posterior process is not developed. It is about 3 cm long.

The periotic or inner ear bone of a lipotid dolphin. The bone looks like it has three lobes, the anterior process, posterior process, and the dome-like pars cochlearis, and perforated by a number of foramina. It is about 2.5 cm long.

The periotics or inner ear bones of phocoenid porpoises. The bone looks like it has three lobes, the anterior process, posterior process, and the dome-like pars cochlearis, and perforated by a number of foramina. They are about 2-3 cm long.

#whaleontology At some point I'll finish this, but: a few years ago I wrote a reasonably exhaustive guide for amateurs and professionals for the identification of dolphin/toothed whale inner ear bones (periotics) in the fossil record. Check it out here: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2023/01/bobb...

A vertebral column of a small cetacean in a plaster jacket - the skeleton is embedded in a light gray siltstone, and there are about 30-40 vertebrae articulated in a row; they have long popsicle stick like transverse processes. Some ribs are present, and there is a scatter of other bones around the vertebral column.

Next to the vertebrae are a pair of earbones - the right tympanic bulla and periotic.

#fossilfriday A partial, mostly articulated skeleton of an extinct porpoise (Phocoenidae) from the lower Pliocene Capistrano Formation of Orange County. On display at the Clark Park interpretive center in OC. Sadly headless, but does preserve nice (diagnostic) earbones. #whaleontology

#whaleontology My favorite part about this new study isn't the new species, but the absolute ✨glow up✨ for the holotype skull of Chilcacetus cavirhinus, first named in 2015, which was missing the tip of the snout and lower jaw. These have now been rediscovered and reattached after being misplaced!

A skull of Basilosaurus isis from Wadi Al Hitan, Valley of the Whales, in Egypt. The skull is large (~1.5 meters long) and has a robust, deep snout with a blowhole shifted back over the canine teeth; the eye socket and braincase are small, and the attachment area for the jaw muscles is humongous. The background is black. Basilosaurus translates to "king lizard" - initially misidentified as a marine reptile

The only king I'll ever kneel to #nokings

also #whaleontology

Obscure controversies in Cenozoic marine vertebrate paleontology 1: taxonomic feuding over the basilosaurid whales Zygorhiza, Pontogeneus, and Cynthiacetus Some of the most lively, and on occasion low-stakes and totally boring arguments in paleontology are over matters of taxonomy: what nam...

RE-posting this "old" blog post that needs quite a bit of updating. Basilosaurid whales have had, up until recently, relatively stabilized taxonomies. Recent discoveries and interpretations have threatened to upend quite a bit of it. How "good" should our fossil evidence be? #whaleontology

#fossilfriday The incredible skull of Eosqualodon langewieschei from the upper Oligocene of NW Germany, recently re-described by Margot Nelson et al. @maruchelys.bsky.social

#whaleontology

Read the paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

A whale atlas vertebra weathering out of dark grayish blue sandstone on a rocky platform in the intertidal zone; dozens of modern barnacles are growing on the bluish gray bone, and tons of bluish black California mussels are growing on the sandstone adjacent to the vertebra.

A ~7 million year old whale atlas found by @ashpoust.bsky.social and I on a rocky outcropping in Monterey Bay, CA, covered in barnacles and California mussels. We had bigger fish to fry yesterday but I'll return to collect it at some point. It measures about 25-30 cm across. #whaleontology

Figure showing the 3d model of the LSU Basilosaurus skull in lateral, ventral, and dorsal views; the skull is long, with large triangular cheek teeth, conical incisors, and a blowhole placed far out on the rostrum.

Photographs of the skull and mandibles of the LSU Basilosaurus.

New book out - Vertebrate fossils of Louisiana - and inside is a nice treat: the first publicly available images of the LSU Basilosaurus cetoides, hidden away for nearly fifty year since it was discovered. Initially described in a Ph.D. thesis, but a publication never followed. #whaleontology

A pod of small long snouted dolphins swimming in the water column, with a blue watery background; the dolphins are pursuing a school of herring and a single juvenile orange fish (California sheepshead wrasse), while a flightless auk is similarly chasing a single herring.

#artadventcalendar day 16: life reconstruction of the 2-6 myo fossil dolphin Parapontoporia from California/Baja, here about to snap up a tasty baby California sheepshead. #paleoart #sciart #paleontology #whaleontology 🐡🐋🦖 Graphite and digital.