Analyzing the anatomy of early fossil cetaceans in the context of modern mammals to understand the evolution of cetaceans from terrestrial ancestors. The evolution of modern cetaceans (including ...

This slower evolution in turn suggests that, early on in their evolution, these filter-feeding whales achieved an optimal skull morphology, which required less subsequent modification. Open the ...

Early ancestors of the ocean's biggest animals once walked on land. Follow their extraordinary journey from shore to sea. Although whales are expert swimmers and perfectly adapted to life underwater, ...

"That's when the tiny braincase started to make sense, because early whales have big skulls ... realizing what this meant for the evolution of whales—it was overwhelming," she remembers.

“When we talk about whale evolution, text books tend to focus on the early stages, when whales went from land to sea,” Nicholas Pyenson, the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian’s ...

Life on Earth had to begin somewhere, and scientists think that “somewhere” is LUCA—or the Last Universal Common Ancestor.

For several years now, Coombs has been studying whale skull peculiarities—such as the structure’s unusual asymmetry in some species—and their implications for cetacean evolution. She first started ...