Collaborative Research: Taxonomy, Phylogeny and the Evolution of Feeding Strategies in Fossil and Living Mysticete Cetaceans

San Diego State University Foundation, San Diego CA

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Annalisa Berta at San Diego State University to support a collaborative project involving museum and university scientists in the reconstruction of evolutionary relationships among fossil and living species of baleen whales. Both anatomical and molecular data sets will be employed and the results of separate and combined analyses of these data sets explored. This study will add considerable new anatomical information from fossil baleen whales (especially characters from the skull and jaws) examined in various museum collections in the US, Europe, Australasia, and Japan. This framework will then be used to interpret the development of the unique filter feeding specializations of baleen whales, especially the evolutionary transition in feeding from tooth-bearing fossil species to baleen-bearing modern species. Few studies have investigated the interrelationships of baleen whales and the results are conflicting. This study will place modern baleen whale diversity in a historical context. Study of the past diversity of baleen whales in relation to times of global climate change may suggest conservation strategies for endangered modern species that may not have otherwise been considered. This project will provide training for both undergraduate and graduate students. Results of the study will be incorporated into exhibits about whale evolution planned at the San Diego Museum of Natural History.