Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth
The origin of baleen whales (Mysticeti), the largest animals on Earth, is closely tied to their signature filter-feeding strategy. Unlike their modern relatives, archaic whales possessed a well-developed, heterodont adult dentition. How these teeth were used, and what role their function and subsequ...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5582114 2023-05-15T15:37:11+02:00 Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth Hocking, David P. Marx, Felix G. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Evans, Alistair R. 2017-08 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582114/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855416 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0348 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582114/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855416 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0348 © 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Palaeontology Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0348 2017-09-10T00:14:10Z The origin of baleen whales (Mysticeti), the largest animals on Earth, is closely tied to their signature filter-feeding strategy. Unlike their modern relatives, archaic whales possessed a well-developed, heterodont adult dentition. How these teeth were used, and what role their function and subsequent loss played in the emergence of filter feeding, is an enduring mystery. In particular, it has been suggested that elaborate tooth crowns may have enabled stem mysticetes to filter with their postcanine teeth in a manner analogous to living crabeater and leopard seals, thereby facilitating the transition to baleen-assisted filtering. Here we show that the teeth of archaic mysticetes are as sharp as those of terrestrial carnivorans, raptorial pinnipeds and archaeocetes, and thus were capable of capturing and processing prey. By contrast, the postcanine teeth of leopard and crabeater seals are markedly blunter, and clearly unsuited to raptorial feeding. Our results suggest that mysticetes never passed through a tooth-based filtration phase, and that the use of teeth and baleen in early whales was not functionally connected. Continued selection for tooth sharpness in archaic mysticetes is best explained by a feeding strategy that included both biting and suction, similar to that of most living pinnipeds and, probably, early toothed whales (Odontoceti). Text baleen whales Crabeater Seals Leopard Seals toothed whales PubMed Central (PMC) Biology Letters 13 8 20170348 |
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Palaeontology Hocking, David P. Marx, Felix G. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Evans, Alistair R. Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth |
topic_facet |
Palaeontology |
description |
The origin of baleen whales (Mysticeti), the largest animals on Earth, is closely tied to their signature filter-feeding strategy. Unlike their modern relatives, archaic whales possessed a well-developed, heterodont adult dentition. How these teeth were used, and what role their function and subsequent loss played in the emergence of filter feeding, is an enduring mystery. In particular, it has been suggested that elaborate tooth crowns may have enabled stem mysticetes to filter with their postcanine teeth in a manner analogous to living crabeater and leopard seals, thereby facilitating the transition to baleen-assisted filtering. Here we show that the teeth of archaic mysticetes are as sharp as those of terrestrial carnivorans, raptorial pinnipeds and archaeocetes, and thus were capable of capturing and processing prey. By contrast, the postcanine teeth of leopard and crabeater seals are markedly blunter, and clearly unsuited to raptorial feeding. Our results suggest that mysticetes never passed through a tooth-based filtration phase, and that the use of teeth and baleen in early whales was not functionally connected. Continued selection for tooth sharpness in archaic mysticetes is best explained by a feeding strategy that included both biting and suction, similar to that of most living pinnipeds and, probably, early toothed whales (Odontoceti). |
format |
Text |
author |
Hocking, David P. Marx, Felix G. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Evans, Alistair R. |
author_facet |
Hocking, David P. Marx, Felix G. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Evans, Alistair R. |
author_sort |
Hocking, David P. |
title |
Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth |
title_short |
Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth |
title_full |
Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth |
title_fullStr |
Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth |
title_sort |
ancient whales did not filter feed with their teeth |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582114/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855416 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0348 |
genre |
baleen whales Crabeater Seals Leopard Seals toothed whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whales Crabeater Seals Leopard Seals toothed whales |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582114/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855416 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0348 |
op_rights |
© 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0348 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
20170348 |
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1766367639777574912 |