Edom 

Girma

Exercise 4.1 Homework

Phylogenetic Insights from Fossils: A New Whale Fossil Sheds Light on a Major
Division in the Modern Whales

Figure 1 The phylogenetic tree of the Mysticeti.

Question 1
Refer to Figure 1 above. What morphological traits does the new fossil, Janjucetus
hunderi, share with the extant odontocetes?

- Adult teeth and small body size

Question 2
List three synapomorphies shared by the extant filter-feeding whales.

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- Extant filter feeding whales are large in size, they lack teeth and instead
possess baleen to filter out small animals and have flattened rostrums

Question 3
Janjucetus hunderi was a small, toothed whale that was thought to actively hunt prey
rather than filter feed. Why is it considered to be a basal mysticete rather than an
odontocete?
- Janjucetus share features with the mysticetes such as having a laterally
directed zygomatic process and a wide crest whereas it does not have
similarities with odontocete. The features it shares with the mysticetes are
considered to be unique among mysticetes.

Question 4
Discuss some of the aspects of whale feeding ecology that are revealed in their skull
morphology. For instance, what features of the skull are associated with macrophagy
(feeding on large prey)? What features of the skull reflect adaptations for filter feeding?

- when it comes to feeding associated with features of the skull, there ae

notable differences and characteristics. For instance, macrophagous
predators are ones that usually capture single prey items. In order to do this,
they would need specialized teeth along with a large skull for the insertion of
a mandible (for chewing). Macrophagous predators have large, sharp and
deeply rooted anterior teeth and canines, distal portion of their accessory
denticles would also be sharp, the temporalis muscle (located around the
mandible used for movement of the mandible) would be large along with a
well developed coronoid process for the placement of the mandible. In order
to do this, the skull would generally have to be large to accommodate this.
On the contrary, when it comes to the skulls that reflect adaptations for filter
feeding, for the most part these skulls have either reduced dentition or are
edentulous. The rostrum and mandibles are not heavily ossified as compared
to those involved in macrophagy feeding, they have elongated rostrums and
mandibles compared to the total skull length that allows them to filter-feed
and finally have reduced orbits and eye size from their counterparts,
macrophagous predators, as vision is not really critical for bulk feeding.

Question 5
Thinking from an evolutionary perspective, provide a hypothesis that could explain why
there are no toothed mysticetes alive today?

- Even though it is difficult to completely understand why toothed mysticetes

may or may not have gone extinct, an explanation of this could be due to
their lack of ability to evolve a sophisticated method for echolocation as the
odontocetes have. This could have created an environment where competition
for survival is now a factor thus having the survival of the fittest fit in. In this
case making the mysticetes the disadvantaged group. Another reason of this

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could be from the fact that being edentulous is more energetically favorable.
For instance, we know that toothed mysticetes that use macrophagy as a
primary way to consume prey need larger orbits and eyes because
visualization of their prey is very critical for feeding. In those that are
edentulous, they do not require such advanced eye sight because visualization
of their prey is not as important due to their bulk feeding filters that enables
them to filter out fish from a gulp of vast amounts of water. The trait seen as
least economically favorable could have been washed out as time went on.

Question 6
Describe a hypothetical fossil of a whale skull that would increase our knowledge of
cetacean evolution if it were to be discovered. List the pertinent features of this imaginary
fossil and suggest what questions about the evolutionary history of whales could be
answered by studying it.

- One possibility of this would be a fossil of a whale skull that had intermediate
orbits and teeth while sharing some similar characteristics with mysticetes
that are filter feeders. Having this type of fossil that kind of serves as an
intermediate moment in time between the evolution of skulls that correlate
with teethed and edentulous mysticetes can create grounds where we could
understand why teethed mysticetes have gone extinct.

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Figure 2 The close resemblance between the teeth of Janjucetus hunderi

(a–d) and those of the currently living crab-eating seal, Lobodon
carcinophagus (bottom image). (Seal image courtesy of Dr. Alistair Evans,
Monash University, Australia.)

Question 7
Refer to Figure 2 above showing the teeth of the fossil whale Janjucetus hunderi. As you
can see, the teeth are very complex and closely resemble the teeth of a seal living in
Antarctica today. This seal, Lobodon carcinophagus, is called a crab-eating seal, but its
main diet consists of krill, which it filters out of the water through its complexly cusped
teeth. Krill are also a major component of the diet of modern Mysticeti. Why do the
authors discount this similarity in tooth structure as evidence that Janjucetus hunderi was
a filter feeder?

Answer: The authors point out that wear patterns evident on the teeth of the fossil are not
similar to those seen on crab-eater seals, and also that the teeth of the fossil whale would
not interdigitate in a way that was conducive to a filter-feeding use. Although they
discount the possibility that the fossil whale used its teeth in filter feeding, no one really
knows for certain, and the striking similarity in tooth form to the filter-feeding seal does
inspire one to wonder.

While it has been hypothesized that the mysticeti might have used their teeth in
filtering (anterior teeth interlocks and cheek teeth sheared against one another), the
presence of heavy shear facets and lack of lattice like dentition as those found in
crab-eating seal suggests that these two infact do not share the same type of feeding
functions. It could also be due to the fact that these two may have shared common
environments that could have shaped the way they feed along with the structure of
their teeth.

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