Skip to main content
Back to Show
Eons

How Whale Evolution Kind Of Sucked

Season 4 Episode 39

Mystacodon is the earliest known mysticete, the group that, today, we call the baleen whales. But if this was a baleen whale, where was its baleen? Where did baleen come from? And how did it live without it?

Support Provided By
Season
Why Does Caffeine Exist?
8:29
It started with the production of one specific molecule and its ability to evolve.
How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles
12:34
The epic saga of Los Angeles' natural history is still visible and even striking.
When Giant Millipedes Reigned
7:02
Let's explore how and why this millipede became this big!
Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not
9:19
In 2003, microbiologists made this huge discovery.
Something Has Been Making This Mark For 500 Million Years
9:42
Paleodictyon, a hexagonal-patterned fossil, is a bit of a mystery. What could it be?
We Can “Bring Back” The Woolly Mammoth. Should We?
6:40
We may have found the blueprints for building them ourselves.
Is This The Oldest Dad In The Fossil Record?
6:37
Diictodon used burrows to breed and a male parent may have stayed behind to feed it.
The Curious Case of the Cave Lion
8:09
Large feline roamed Eurasia and Its fossils have been found across the continent.
When Ants Domesticated Fungi
9:05
Ants have been farming for 60 million years! We explore how, when and why they started.
The Ancient Human Species With A Missing Body
7:56
Would it really be impossible for us to reconstruct their morphology?
Why Sour May Be The Oldest Taste
7:02
Sour used to be the taste of danger. But, now its role has reversed.
How the Smallest Animal Got So Simple
6:52
This tiny, simple animal, the Myxozoans, evolved from something bigger and more complex.
Active loading indicator