Illustration of the recently described 25 million year old toothed whale,Janjucetus hunderi,which is posited as belonging to the suborder of cetaceans known as the mysticeti,or baleen whales,despite its teeth and absence of baleen. A fossil skull of the roughly 12-foot-long whale was found in Australia,and it shares many anatomical details with the baleen whales,which include the modern blue,humpback,gray and right whales. It is not believed to be an ancestor of the modern baleen whales,however; they all share a common ancestor |