Mystacodon
Name:
Mystacodon
(Moustache tooth).
Phonetic: Mis-tah-ko-don.
Named By: O. Lambert, M. Martínez-Cáeres,
G. Bianucci, E. Steurbaut, M. Urbina & C.
Muizon - 2017.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Cetacea.
Species: M. selenensis
(type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Holotype estimated to be about 3.75 to
4 meters long.
Known locations: Peru - Yumaque Formation.
Time period: Priabonian of the Eocene.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and post
cranial skeleton.
Mystacodon
is a genus of primitive whale
that lived in waters around South
America during the Eocene. Mystacodon is a
transitional form,
somewhere between the predatory toothed whale ancestors and later
filter feeding baleen whales. Mystacodon however
is thought to have
been a suction feeder. This is where the whale would open its mouth
creating a sudden vacuum in the water. Any small fish nearby are
literally sucked in to the mouth which then closes around them.
Further reading
- Earliest Mysticete from the Late Eocene of Peru Sheds New Light on
the Origin of Baleen Whales. - Current Biology 27:17. - O.
Lambert, M. Martínez-Cáeres, G. Bianucci, E. Steurbaut,
M. Urbina & C. Muizon - 2017.
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