Weird Anatomy

Here's a group I wish was better known: these are “𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘴” 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘴 (skull) and 𝘡𝘪𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪 (rostrum), members of the longirostrine “swordfish” dolphins (Eurhinodelphinidae) from the Miocene of Lecce, Italy, displayed at the Museum of Paleontology of Naples (the label says "Rhabdosteidae", but this name is now considered problematic, see Fordyce and de Muizon, 2001). Many different odontocete lineages converged on a longirostrine, swordfish-like morphology, especially during the Miocene, but eurhinodelphinids were particularly swordfish-like, having a mandible that was much shorter than the rostrum. Approximately one-third of this long rostrum was formed by the premaxilla, which in at least some genera (including 𝘡𝘪𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘴) had an elongated edentulous termination (McCurry and Pyenson 2019; Tosetto et al. 2023). Two competing ideas have been formulated to explain the function of this hyperelongate...