Lateral palatal foramina are ubiquitous across fossil whales and shared with hippos
- 1Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution 1 , Washington, DC, USA
- 2J. Shukla Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University 2 , Fairfax, VA, USA
- 3Vivitec AI 3 , Crestview Hills, KY, USA
Abstract
Lateral palatal foramina have been proposed as osteological correlates for baleen in fossil mysticetes. A recent study reported significantly elevated foramina counts in extant mysticetes relative to terrestrial artiodactyls (Ekdale et al. 2024 Sci. Rep. 14, 10174 (doi:10.1038/s41598-024-60673-8)). However, that analysis drew conclusions about fossil taxa despite not including any fossil taxa in its analysis. Here, we merge the datasets of Peredo et al. (Peredo et al. 2022 Sci. Rep. 12, 11448 (doi:10.1038/s41598-022-15684-8)) and Ekdale et al. (Ekdale et al. 2024 Sci. Rep. 14, 10174 (doi:10.1038/s41598-024-60673-8)) and add palatal foramina counts for eight stem mysticetes, producing a combined dataset of 195 specimens. Stem mysticetes are statistically indistinguishable from terrestrial artiodactyls in the number of palatal foramina (stem mysticete median = 4; artiodactyl median = 3) and significantly different from extant mysticetes (median = 46.5). Finer taxonomic analysis reveals that the elevated mysticete signal is driven by Balaenopteroidea. Balaenidae and Neobalaenidae, despite bearing baleen, do not exhibit elevated counts. Moreover, the elevated counts in Balaenopteroidea are a condition shared with Hippopotamidae, the closest living relatives of cetaceans. These results indicate that palatal foramina counts probably reflect the degree of soft tissue vascularization rather than the presence of baleen. Lateral palatal foramina counts cannot be used to infer baleen in fossil whales, and phylogenetic bracketing remains the most defensible framework for inferring baleen in fossil cetaceans.
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BibTeX
@article{pyenson2026lateral,
title = {{Lateral palatal foramina are ubiquitous across fossil whales and shared with hippos}},
author = {Nicholas D. Pyenson and Mark D. Uhen and Carlos Mauricio Peredo},
journal = {Royal Society Open Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1098/rsos.261050},
url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/261050/483759/Lateral-palatal-foramina-are-ubiquitous-across},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Lateral palatal foramina are ubiquitous across fossil whales and shared with hippos
AU - Nicholas D. Pyenson
AU - Mark D. Uhen
AU - Carlos Mauricio Peredo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Royal Society Open Science
DO - 10.1098/rsos.261050
UR - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/261050/483759/Lateral-palatal-foramina-are-ubiquitous-across
AB - Lateral palatal foramina have been proposed as osteological correlates for baleen in fossil mysticetes. A recent study reported significantly elevated foramina counts in extant mysticetes relative to terrestrial artiodactyls (Ekdale et al. 2024 Sci. Rep. 14, 10174 (doi:10.1038/s41598-024-60673-8)). However, that analysis drew conclusions about fossil taxa despite not including any fossil taxa in its analysis. Here, we merge the datasets of Peredo et al. (Peredo et al. 2022 Sci. Rep. 12, 11448 (doi:10.1038/s41598-022-15684-8)) and Ekdale et al. (Ekdale et al. 2024 Sci. Rep. 14, 10174 (doi:10.1038/s41598-024-60673-8)) and add palatal foramina counts for eight stem mysticetes, producing a combined dataset of 195 specimens. Stem mysticetes are statistically indistinguishable from terrestrial artiodactyls in the number of palatal foramina (stem mysticete median = 4; artiodactyl median = 3) and significantly different from extant mysticetes (median = 46.5). Finer taxonomic analysis reveals that the elevated mysticete signal is driven by Balaenopteroidea. Balaenidae and Neobalaenidae, despite bearing baleen, do not exhibit elevated counts. Moreover, the elevated counts in Balaenopteroidea are a condition shared with Hippopotamidae, the closest living relatives of cetaceans. These results indicate that palatal foramina counts probably reflect the degree of soft tissue vascularization rather than the presence of baleen. Lateral palatal foramina counts cannot be used to infer baleen in fossil whales, and phylogenetic bracketing remains the most defensible framework for inferring baleen in fossil cetaceans.
SN - 2054-5703
ER -