Talk:Baleen

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Redirect question

Why does gummy, in reference to the gums of a type of porpoise, redirect to the page about gummi sweets? Completely unrelated.

Redirect question

Why does blasko redirect here? I can't find the word "blasko" anywhere on this page to illuminate me. 59.167.50.44 (talk)Dave —Preceding undated comment added 15:38, 12 June 2009 (UTC).[reply]

Size

Is there anyting to support the notion that "The blue whale, the largest animal alive and probably the largest animal to ever have lived" ? I would agree that it is the biggest living, even if a source would be interesting. But to ever have lived seems to me like the dinosaurs were a bit forgotten by the author of this sentence. 202.94.133.196 (talk) 06:01, 2 September 2009 (UTC)François —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.94.133.196 (talk) 05:57, 2 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Much larger than any dinosaur. Richard New Forest (talk) 18:34, 2 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions

1. Regarding the fossil species referred to in the Evolution section, this can be expanded to include a specific fossil species, such as Janjucetus hunderi and aetiocetids, which were proposed to be a transitional taxa that had both teeth and an early form of baleen. (Fitzgerald, E.M.G. (2006). A bizarre new toothed mysticete (Cetacea) from Australia and the early evolution of baleen whales. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences: 273, pp 2955-2963.)

2. With that being said, it should also be noted in this section that the phylogeny and evolutionary relationships of mysticetes is still being studied and debated. For example, it has been argued that these species did not actually possess any form of baleen and therefore were not transitional. (Marx, F.G. (2010). The more the merrier? A large cladistic analysis of the mysticetes, and comments on the transition from teeth to baleen. Journal of Mammalian Evolution: 18, pp 77-100.)

3. It can be added that baleen plates likely evolved because of the interaction between a new niche for schooling prey and selection for larger body size that allowed for better thermoregulation when mammals returned to the ocean. Larger body size also helped mammals sustain for a longer period of time before meals of the patchy populations of schooling prey. (Croll, D. A., Newton, K.M., & Tershy, B. R. (2002). Filter feeding. Encyclopedia of marine mammals, pp 428-432.) Huck.44 (talk) 05:31, 30 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]