Archeopteryx was found in Germany in the 9th century. It is one of the biggest turning points in the history of life as a fossil of teeth and feathered animals at the time of its discovery.
Dinosaurs began to fly in the sky, and birds were born. Animal whales, which play an important role in evolutionary history as much as the Archeopteryx, are largely underwater mammals, predominantly krill.
Jonathan Gaisler and his colleagues at the New York Institute of Technology have uncovered some notable points of this archeology fossil and have published findings that show what it has done to whales and birds.
The whale whale technologically sucks in a huge amount of water, then only feeds small animals to the feed and spits out the water again. The beard plate used here is in the position where other mammals' teeth grow and serves as a filter to filter small animals.
It is not a durable dent which is the main component of the teeth, but it is composed of a keratin which is a flexible substance that constitutes hair and nails.
Some researchers have argued that whales have begun to eat food using this inhalation filter because their teeth have been stiffened and replaced by this beardboard.
Other researchers have said that whales have completely disappeared as the ancient whales ate prey by inhalation.
If you eat food by inhalation, you do not need a tooth anymore. This approach is found, for example, in some animals, such as chickens, and has made intake more efficient.
However, these beard plates are rarely found in the fossil record. It is not yet clear which theory is correct.
The new fossil, named Koronodon Habenstain, was found in 28 million years old sediments near the Wando River in South Carolina, and was classified as a kind of whisker because of its wide spout and short jawbone.
However, unlike existing whale whales, this fossil had teeth. It was not very sharp. This tooth had a pointed angle of 155 degrees.
The sperm whale eating the squid is blunt compared to the 50 to 60 degree tip of the tooth. It was not a tooth that was firmly supported in the bone as compared to other animals that chewed.
But when Dr. Geithler and his colleagues took a tooth from the upper and lower fossils of the fossil and analyzed it, it turned out that the teeth played the same role as sifting out small animals from the water.
This is a result of empowering the theory that whales have evolved from eating teeth to eating food by inhalation and filtering. But he said it is not right that the animals actually used that way, although it is true that the teeth can be gathered together to form a sieve.
Dr. Keithler took the fossil to his colleague, Brian Beatty, and analyzed it in detail. Dr. Beatty said that if the animal was alive and had a small prey filtered out of the water, the teeth near the mouth would have played the same role as the body did. In other words, ancient whales ate small prey in water.
However, whales with teeth may be able to eat individual large prey if given the opportunity. It is not known whether the modern whale does such an action. However, leopard seals can be seen.
Leopard seals filter out krill and eat penguins with their teeth. The leopard seal has a snout and jaw similar to Koronodon Habenstain. Thus, the new fossil has left an important milestone in the path of how the whale, the largest animal in the world, has turned from a predator to an eating animal.
