Review of respiratory anatomy adaptations in whales

JS Reidenberg, JT Laitman - The Anatomical Record, 2024 - Wiley Online Library
Whales (cetaceans, including dolphins and porpoises) are superbly adapted to life in water,
but retain vestiges of their terrestrial ancestry, particularly the need to breathe air. Their …

Cautionary tales on the use of proxies to estimate body size and form of extinct animals

JH Gayford, RK Engelman, PC Sternes… - Ecology and …, 2024 - Wiley Online Library
Body size is of fundamental importance to our understanding of extinct organisms.
Physiology, ecology and life history are all strongly influenced by body size and shape …

[HTML][HTML] The dinosaurs that weren't: osteohistology supports giant ichthyosaur affinity of enigmatic large bone segments from the European Rhaetian

M Perillo, PM Sander - PeerJ, 2024 - peerj.com
Very large unidentified elongate and rounded fossil bone segments of uncertain origin
recovered from different Rhaetian (Late Triassic) fossil localities across Europe have been …

Giant baleen whales emerged from a cold southern cradle

JP Rule, RJ Duncan, FG Marx… - … of the Royal …, 2023 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Baleen whales (mysticetes) include the largest animals on the Earth. How they achieved
such gigantic sizes remains debated, with previous research focusing primarily on when …

Downsizing a heavyweight: factors and methods that revise weight estimates of the giant fossil whale Perucetus colossus

R Motani, ND Pyenson - PeerJ, 2024 - peerj.com
Extremes in organismal size have broad interest in ecology and evolution because
organismal size dictates many traits of an organism's biology. There is particular fascination …

[HTML][HTML] Reconstructing Dunkleosteus terrelli (Placodermi: Arthrodira): A new look for an iconic Devonian predator

RK Engelman - Palaeontologia Electronica, 2024 - palaeo-electronica.org
Dunkleosteus is a widely-recognized prehistoric organism, yet its life appearance,
paleobiology, and even basic morphology remain poorly understood. A new reconstruction …

Double-phased controlled and influenced biomineralization in marine invertebrates: the example of Miocene to recent reef-building polychaete cirratulids from …

A Guido, F D'Amico, TJ DeVries, T Kočí… - Palaeogeography …, 2024 - Elsevier
Carbonate biomineralization normally occurs in three distinct types: controlled, induced and
influenced, each with its peculiar characteristics. Building-reef species within the family …

A really big fossil whale

JGM Thewissen, DA Waugh - 2023 - nature.com
A really big fossil whale Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using
a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend …

[HTML][HTML] The genome of African manatee Trichechus senegalensis reveals secondary adaptation to the aquatic environment

X Huang, G Dong, H Fan, W Zhou, G Huang, D Guan… - Iscience, 2024 - cell.com
Sirenians exhibit unique aquatic adaptations, showcasing both convergent adaptive
features shared with cetaceans and unique characteristics such as cold sensitivity and …

[HTML][HTML] Among the world's smallest vertebrates: a new miniaturized flea-toad (Brachycephalidae) from the Atlantic rainforest

LF Toledo, LM Botelho, AS Carrasco-Medina, JA Gray… - PeerJ, 2024 - peerj.com
The genus Brachycephalus includes miniaturized toadlets with two distinct morphotypes:
brightly colored species with a bufoniform phenotype and smaller, cryptic species with a …