dolphinfish are known for their intelligence activity and expert ability in catch shady meals , but one ancient dolphin shun the pescetarian modus vivendi and alternatively decide to chow down on squid – andlost its teethin the process .
The bizarre toothless blower has been described from two skulls unearthed in what is now South Carolina , and represents an early offset of the radical of nautical mammals that run to be known rather ironically as toothed whales . Along with losing its gnashers to tackle easygoing - bodied cephalopods , the unearthly dolphinfish also shrunk in size of it until it was about one-half as long as a common bottlenosed dolphin .
Dating to around 30 million age previous , the dwarf cetaceanis think to have evolved not long after toothed whale – which admit all forward-looking dolphins , as well as sea wolf , peck whales , and sperm hulk – first break up from the other major group of cetacean mammal , the baleen whales . However , the newly namedInermorostrum xenopsclearly took a rather different evolutionary path than the others .
The workplace , published in theProceedings of the Royal Society B , line its conspicuous lack of tooth and blunt , shortened snout . “ This last feature is perhaps the most critical , ” explains lead generator Robert Boessenecker in astatement . “ Short snouts typically pass in [ toothed giant ] that are skilful at suction feed – the smaller the oral opening , the bang-up the suck . ”
The add-on of deep artery channels running through the snoot of the skull also hints at this sucking - feeding lifestyle . This increased blood flow may have supply their large muscular lips with oxygen , allowing them to increase the suction they could generate and to slurp in low fish , calamary , and other soft - incarnate marine critters .
The shape of the skull , which is all that has so far been obtain of the creature , also argue that the dolphin ’s head would have pointed downwards somewhat . This , pair with the fact that it still had echolocation , suggests the cetacean would have swam along the bottom of shallow sea , grubbing around in the mud so as to find food , not unlike a seahorse does today . To this destruction , the investigator also suggest it may too have had short bristly whiskers protruding from its snout .
In life story , it would probably have reached just 1 meter ( 3 feet ) in distance , something more like to the highly imperil vaquita , rather than the more prolific bottlenosed dolphin , and would have looked nothing like any cetaceans that presently swim the sea today .
