The blue whale and other baleen whales, the gentle giants of the sea, sift huge quantities of tiny prey from ocean water using a filter-feeding system in their mouths. But they were not the first marine creatures to feed like that.
Artist's reconstruction shows the Triassic Period marine reptile Hupehsuchus nanchangensis, based on fossils unearthed in China's Hubei Province. Hupehsuchus is believed to have been a filter-feeder, akin to some of today's baleen whales. Shi Shunyi and Long Cheng/Handout via REUTERS NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY...of the sea, sift huge quantities of tiny prey from ocean water using a filter-feeding system in their mouths.
Unlike the blue whale, today's largest animal, Hupehsuchus was modest in size, about three feet long. It possessed a long and narrow snout, toothless mouth, front and back limbs that could serve as paddles for steering, and a broad tail that it flipped from side to side for forward propulsion. Baleen does not lend itself well to fossilization and none was found in the Hupehsuchus fossils. But the researchers identified grooves and notches along the edges of its jaws suggesting the presence of soft tissues that could have served like baleen.
This feeding style would match that used by modern bowhead and right whales, which swim with their mouth open near the ocean surface to strain small prey from the seawater.
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