My contribution to #Perucetus discourse:

A purposefully ignorant reconstruction of the #PygmyRightWhale #Caperea as a weird manatee-whale creature.

#Caperea_marginata

The true origins of the world’s smallest and weirdest whale
The pygmy right whale, Caperea marginata, is the weirdest whale you’ve probably never heard of.
It is the smallest of the living baleen whales and restricted to the Southern Hemisphere.
https://theconversation.com/the-true-origins-of-the-worlds-smallest-and-weirdest-whale-208279 #small #whale #baleen #PygmyRightWhale #CapereaMarginata

#Researchers have finally settled a decades-long dispute about the evolutionary origins of the #PygmyRightWhale https://phys.org/news/2023-07-whale-debate-rest.html

Convergent #evolution of skim feeding in baleen #whales https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.13047

"#Genomics now shows that #Caperea is a distinct lineage and not related to #RightWhales. It is the sole guardian of a unique piece of evolutionary heritage. It truly is the last survivor of an otherwise lost family that once played a much bigger role"

Holy #Caperea ! Easily the best footage of this enigmatic little #Cetacean I’ve ever seen.

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101806474

#PygmyRightWhale #Caperea_marginata