Illustration of a New Fossil Whale, Bohaskaia monodontoides

A reconstruction of a new fossil beluga relative, Bohaskaia monodontoides, described by Smithsonian scientists, is in the foreground. Its living relatives, the beluga and narwhal, are illustrated left to right in the background. The coloration of the extinct whale is speculative.

Monodontids, the group of whales that includes living belugas and narwhals, are emblematic symbols of the Arctic. However, the fossil record shows that these animals had a much larger range than the northern pole.

In the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the National Museum of Natural History's curator of fossil marine mammals Nick Pyenson, and Howard University/NMNH pre-doctoral student Jorge Velez-Juarbe described a new species of fossil monodontid from early Pliocene deposits (around 3-4 million years old) in Virginia and North Carolina. The fossil, dubbed Bohaskaia monodontoides, honors David J. Bohaska of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and member of the Pyenson Lab, for his knowledge and dedication to the paleontological heritage of the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Learn more about the recent discovery in the Ocean Portal Paleobiology Blog.

An illustration of a recently discovered species of Monodontid, Bohaskaia monodontoides, and its beluga and narwhale relatives
Carl Buell, http://carlbuell.com/

View Related Ocean Media Content

comment_wrapper_curve_top

Share your comments here.

* When you click submit, your comment will be added to the queue for review and will be published after approval.

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.

More information about formatting options

Type the characters you see in this picture. (verify using audio)
Type the characters you see in the picture above; if you can't read them, submit the form and a new image will be generated. Not case sensitive.

Comments

CONGRATULATIONS, Dave!! Fred

CONGRATULATIONS, Dave!!

Fred and Suzanne L.

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 7:59am.

there are still undiscovered

there are still undiscovered species here on earth, specially underwater, thanks to our brilliant marine biologist who still craving looking for more mysteries, and share to us what they have discovered.
-Azell Montederamos-

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/20/2012 - 1:28am.

comment_wrapper_curve