The future impacts of anthropogenic global change on marine ecosystems are highly
uncertain, but insights can be gained from past intervals of high atmospheric carbon dioxide …

Previous analyses of relations, divergence times, and diversification patterns among extant
mammalian families have relied on supertree methods and local molecular clocks. We …

Abstract The transition in Mysticeti (Cetacea) from capture of individual prey using teeth to
bulk filtering batches of small prey using baleen ranks among the most dramatic …

Dating the tree of life is a core endeavor in evolutionary biology. Rates of evolution are
fundamental to nearly every evolutionary model and process. Rates need dates. There is …

A new, fully dated total-evidence phylogeny of baleen whales (Mysticeti) shows that
evolutionary phases correlate strongly with Caenozoic modernization of the oceans and …

The emergence of Cetacea in the Paleogene represents one of the most profound
macroevolutionary transitions within Mammalia. The move from a terrestrial habitat to a …

Background Cetacea (dolphins, porpoises, and whales) is a clade of aquatic species that
includes the most massive, deepest diving, and largest brained mammals. Understanding …

Living cetaceans exhibit interspecific size ranging across several orders of magnitude, and
rank among the largest vertebrates ever. Details of how cetaceans evolved different body …

Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are the largest animals on Earth, thanks to their ability to filter
huge volumes of small prey from seawater. Mysticetes appeared during the Late Eocene …

Assessing the quality of the fossil record is notoriously hard, and many recent attempts have
used sampling proxies that can be questioned. For example, counts of geological formations …