An identified ancient whale from New Zealand is giving paleontologists a clearer view of the early history of baleen whales.

Killer whales are the only natural predator of baleen whales — those that have “baleen” in their mouths to sieve their plankton diet from the water. More solitary than toothed whales, baleen whales ...

Whales are mighty. Blue whales, for example, aren’t only the largest animal on Earth, but as far as we know, they’re the largest animal that’s ever existed on Earth—and that includes dinosaurs.

Looking at the skull and spine bones, the team saw that some of the bones remain unfused, suggesting that this was a subadult ...

About 25 million years ago, the warm, shallow seas off the southern coast of Australia were home to a bountiful scene of ocean-dwelling creatures. “In these seas, there was this extraordinary ...

Bowhead whales have the greatest life span of any mammal on Earth. They can reach over 200 years in age thanks in part to ...

Alfred the aetiocetid had teeth but needed a better way to capture his tiny prey. Credit: Carl Buell Baleen whales, such as the gigantic 30m-long blue whale, are the largest animals that have ever ...

Discovered: How a California law lead to a whale fossil discovery; over half of moviegoers want to puke while watching 3D films; dogs sniff out other dogs in crowds; tracking climate change through ...

Baleen plates serve as whale diaries, preserving years of hormonal data. A new study in the journal PLOS One shows that, with so few Rice's whales left, the hormones locked in those plates offer clues ...

Australia is home to a unique bunch of native land mammals, such as koalas, wombats and wallabies. These furballs evolved in isolation on this island continent and have become Australian symbols. But ...

Baleen is a flexible, keratin-based filtering system that allows whales to feed on massive amounts of tiny prey efficiently. Different baleen shapes and sizes reflect different feeding strategies, ...