Strontium isotopes reveal a globally unique assemblage of Early Miocene baleen whales.

The earliest Miocene (Aquitanian, 23-20 Ma) remains a critically under-sampled 'dark age' in cetacean evolution. This is especially true of baleen whales (mysticetes), Aquitanian specimens of which remain almost entirely unknown. Across the globe, the nature of the cetacean fossil record radically shifts at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary, with mysticetes and some archaic odontocete lineages suddenly disappearing despite the availability of cetacean-bearing rock units. New Zealand is the only place worldwide where this change is not readily apparent, with baleen whales apparently persisting into the earliest Miocene. Whether this is a genuine pattern has so far remained obscured by a lack of biostratigraphic resolution associated with the Oligo-Miocene boundary. Here, we report 23 new strontium (

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© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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