Ancient Toothless Whale Skull Discovered In Otago, New Zealand ( Open Access Paper )

[Oxytropidoceras]

20 million-year-old whale fossils found

The New Zealand Herald, Nov 19, 2014

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11361084

Ancient toothless whale skull discovered in Otago

Wilma Mckay, Stuff.co.nz, Novmeber 19, 2014

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/63351935/Ancient-toothless-whale-skull-discovered-in-Otago

Ancient New Zealand 'Dawn Whale' identified

University of Otago, Phys.Org, Novmeber 19, 2014

http://phys.org/news/2014-11-ancient-zealand-dawn-whale.html

Tohoraata: primitive baleen whales

(Eomysticetidae) from the Oligocene of New

Zealand, Department of Geology, Univ. of Otago

http://www.otago.ac.nz/geology/research/paleontology/tohoraata.html

Ancient New Zealand 'Dawn Whale' identified

by Otago researchers, University of Otago

http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago082931.html

The open access paper is:

Boessenecker, R.W., and R. E. Fordyce, 2014,

A new Eomysticetid (Mammalia: Cetacea) from

the Late Oligocene of New Zealand and a

re-evaluation of ‘Mauicetus’ waitakiensis".

Papers in Palaeontology. in press. doi:10.1002/spp2.1005.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1005/full

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/spp2.1005/asset/spp21005.pdf?v=1&t=i2opps76&s=a21e7405803e743cdf376a0c21a3a2d80735635a

Yours,

Paul H.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Oxytropidoceras

[jpc]

Hey... isn't that our very own Bobby in the NZ news?

[Auspex]

Hey... isn't that our very own Bobby in the NZ news?

Yup!

This paper is a pretty big deal in his field, too

[Triceratops]

Interesting finds. And great to hear a tff member played a big part in it!

[Boesse]

Gracias folks! This is just the first out of five pubs from my thesis. I'd like to point out that more info can be found here, including freely downloadable 3D models of the earbones: http://www.otago.ac.nz/geology/research/paleontology/tohoraata.html

In fact, if you want to make a 3D print (to scale) of the earbone, you can! We've got those file types on the web as well. Also, I'll reiterate: the actual publication is currently free - anyone can download it!

Lastly - if anyone's got any questions, now's the time!

[Doctor Mud]

Well done on the paper and media coverage.

Also - very nice life reconstruction.

3D models for printing - now that's cool.

Would love to be able to print out scaled down versions of the C. Angustidens specimen one day too!

[Doctor Mud]

Also 5 publications from a PhD is pretty darn good too.

You'll be in a pretty good place for whatever you want to do next.

Postdoc?

[fossilized6s]

That's awesome Bobby! Congrats on a job well done. You're living my dream sir.

[jcbshark]

Well done Bobby, congrats!

[jpc]

wow.. printable bones in a paper. The future is here...

[Coco]

Salut,

Great job! Et maintenant, je sais que votre visage!

Noix de coco

[Boesse]

Well done on the paper and media coverage.

Also - very nice life reconstruction.

3D models for printing - now that's cool.

Would love to be able to print out scaled down versions of the C. Angustidens specimen one day too!

Actually that C. angustidens specimen would be pretty easy to do - since it's in a slab, you could probably do it from under 100 photos. Ewan wants to do Waipatia in the future. We'll be putting up 3D models of all the earbones and some of the skulls from my dissertation as the other chapters get published. I'm hoping for a postdoc in the future, or a job, whatever comes first.

[Carcharodontosaurus]

Bobby told me about this at a talk with Dr. Thomas Holtz about tyrannosaurs. Great to see a new species described by a forum member.

[Boesse]

And Carcharodontosaurus - you're welcome to swing by the department and see the original any time you're back in Dunedin! (and that of course goes for anyone else from NZ, or who happens to come through town)

[MgTattooer86]

Huge Congrats Bobby!! I don't know a whole lot about cetaceans, I'm curious about that reconstruction. Was it based from examples that share some relation to the new species? Thank you.

Mike

[Boesse]

Yup! the rest of the head shape in that reconstruction is based on other eomysticetids from New Zealand (also part of my thesis), as well as the already described Eomysticetus and Yamatocetus.

[MgTattooer86]

Thanks, I'll be reading after work!

[RichW9090]

Bobby, congrats on this paper, and I look forward to seeing the following 4 papers. I just finished reading Hans' new book, which I found quite well written, and it should be appropriate for most members of this Forum. (Hans Thewissen, 2014, The Walking Whales.)

Maybe you'll write the equivalent about the evolution of mysticete cetaceans?

Rich

Edited November 23, 2014 by RichW9090

[xonenine]

congratulations!

[Scylla]

Way to go Bobby!

[Doctor Mud]

I'm interested in the modelling process.

Guess it takes advantage of the focal length of the camera?

I see there is freeware that the average person can try this at home:

Google 123D catch. Not sure if this software can make full 3D models ,I.e. underside included.

Looks fun to try.