New research from the Museums Victoria Research Institute has turned upside down our previous understanding of the evolution of the largest animals ever––baleen whales.
Plants & Animals
Dec 24, 2023
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113
Baleen whales are the titans of the ocean, the largest animals to have ever lived. The record holder is the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), which can reach lengths of up to 30 meters. That's longer than a basketball court.
Evolution
Dec 20, 2023
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199
The whaling industry helped drive industrialization in the 19th century, with whale oil used to light lamps and lubricate machinery. Even after petroleum replaced whale oil as an energy source in the U.S., whaling continued ...
Other
Aug 14, 2023
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Whales have long fascinated us with their size and beauty. Once we stopped whaling, their populations have begun to recover, in a major win for conservation.
Plants & Animals
Jun 5, 2023
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University of Toronto researchers have shed light on the evolutionary transition of whales' early ancestors from on-shore living to deep-sea foraging, suggesting that these ancestors had visual systems that could quickly ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 29, 2022
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330
A new study lead by Dr. Ellen Coombs, who studied her Ph.D. at The Natural History Museum and University College London, has revealed for the first time that the diversity we see in whale (Cetacea) skulls was achieved through ...
Plants & Animals
May 10, 2022
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966
Abrupt shifts in the evolution of animals—short periods of time when an organism rapidly changes size or form—have long been a challenge for theorists including Darwin. Now a newly published research paper supports the ...
Evolution
Mar 2, 2022
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1192
A team of researchers with Naturales y Museo, Universidad de Zaragoza and Universidad Nacional del Comahue has found evidence that suggests the remains of a dinosaur discovered in Argentina in 2012 may represent a creature ...
A report in the journal Current Biology on July 9 offers a detailed description of the first nearly complete skeleton of an extinct large dolphin, discovered in what is now South Carolina. The 15-foot-long dolphin (Ankylorhiza ...
Archaeology
Jul 9, 2020
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721
A team of researchers with members from Italy, Australia, and Belgium has found evidence that suggests baleen whales grew large earlier than has been thought. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the group ...
