Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38113937›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2023

Giant baleen whales emerged from a cold southern cradle.

James P Rule, Ruairidh J Duncan, Felix G Marx, Tahlia I Pollock, Alistair R Evans, Erich M G Fitzgerald

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
1.2field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Giant baleen whales emerged from a cold southern cradle.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.

James P RuleSchool of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-7256-2393
Ruairidh J DuncanSchool of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-5348-5043
Felix G MarxMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington 6011, New Zealand.ORCID 0000-0002-1029-4001
Tahlia I PollockSchool of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5605-9069
Alistair R EvansSchool of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4078-4693
Erich M G FitzgeraldSchool of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.ORCID 0009-0005-1846-9338
Museums Victoria · AUMonash University · AUMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa · NZNatural History Museum · GBSmithsonian Institution · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Baleen whales (mysticetes) include the largest animals on the Earth. How they achieved such gigantic sizes remains debated, with previous research focusing primarily on when mysticetes became large, rather than where. Here, we describe an edentulous baleen whale fossil (21.12-16.39 mega annum (Ma)) from South Australia. With an estimated body length of 9 m, it is the largest mysticete from the Early Miocene. Analysing body size through time shows that ancient baleen whales from the Southern Hemisphere were larger than their northern counterparts. This pattern seemingly persists for much of the Cenozoic, even though southern specimens contribute only 19% to the global mysticete fossil record. Our findings contrast with previous ideas of a single abrupt shift towards larger size during the Plio-Pleistocene, which we here interpret as a glacially driven Northern Hemisphere phenomenon. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating Southern Hemisphere fossils into macroevolutionary patterns, especially in light of the high productivity of Southern Ocean environments.

Indexed as

FossilsWhalesAnimalsBody SizeSouth Australiabody sizeChaeomysticetigigantismMysticetiSouthern Hemisphere

Identifiers

PMID38113937
PMCPMC10730287
OpenAlexW4389975024

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.