New primitive mysticetes: Megabalaena, Toipahautea and Morenocetus
Tanaka et al 2025 described a partial skull and skeleton
of a 5? meter mysticete report, “half of this history [of Balaenidae = right whales] remains unknown owing to a 9-million-year gap from 15.2 to 6.1 m.y.a. in the fossil record. A well-preserved fossil balaenid skeleton, designated SMAC 2731, from the Late Miocene approximately 9 m.y.a. in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, is named as Megabalaena sapporoensis gen. et sp. nov.”
The specimen is welll-described.
Cervicals 2 and 3 are fused, but the skull is not greatly arched as in Eubalaena (the right whale) and less so in Caperea (the pygmy right whale) Miocaperea.
The authors’ cladogram supports the traditional myth
that mysticetes arose from the archaeocete, Aetiocetus and other archaic toothed whales. When you have an invalid outgroup taxon, your basalmost taxa will look like that invalid taxon, rather than the correct outgroup taxon. Hippos and desmostylians are not mentioned in the text. The basal right whale, Caperea, is mistakenly included within the Cetotheriidae. Extinct Miocaperea is not mentioned in the text.
Morenoetus
was originally considered a basal right whale from the Early Miocene of Argentina. Unfortunately Morenocetus is known only from a small, but highly arched 3D cranium about 10cm long. The authors reported, “in most of the fossil balaenid specimens, the
rostrum is not preserved. Incorrect skull orientation in the past may have misled some
character interpretations and, consequently, their scoring for phylogenetic analysis.”
Click on the above links to see the data.
Peripolocetus
is likewise known from a paucity of material.
References
Tanaka Y et al (4 co-authors) 2025. A new member of a large and archaic balaenid from the Late Miocene of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan partly fills a gap of right whale evolution. Palaeontologia Electronica, 28(2):a37. https://doi.org/10.26879/1549
palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025/5581-archaic-balaenid-from-japan
Tsai C-H and Fordyce RE 2018. A new archaic baleen whale Toipahautea waitaki (early Late Oligocene, New Zealand) and the origins of crown Mysticeti. Royal Society Open Science. 5 (4): 172453. doi:10.1098/rsos.172453. PMC 5936954.
wiki/Toipahautea
wiki/Peripolocetus
wiki/Megabalaena
wiki/Morenocetus
Publicity
nationalgeographic.com/science/article/fossil-baleen-whale-new-zealand-ancestor-paleontology-science
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/03/15/new-primitive-mysticetes-megabalaena-toipahautea-and-morenocetus/
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