Felix Marx, an Otago Geology PhD student, reports that the evolution of baleen whales can be explained by changes in ocean plankton and climate over geologic time. According to Marx, and coauthor Mark Uhen (of George Mason University), there is a tight link between increased diversity of whales and the geologic record of diatoms - tiny silica-rich oceanic plants. In turn, the abundance of diatoms probably reflects change in current systems around Antarctica. Read more in Science magazine at
Photograph shows Felix Marx and other paleontologists with a skull of Mauicetus, an archaic baleen whale in the Geology Museum, University of Otago. Photo: R Ewan Fordyce