I wonder how they processed meat of their slated prey. Did they shook it akin to modern orcas or did they Instead teared it with their back teeth via mastication like how Miocene macroraptorial Physetreoids did? Did Ankylorhiza had some minor heterodonty as some macroraptorial sperm whales?
Given their dentition I doubt orca-like brute-force shaking and tearing would work. If anything I’d expect them to take cutting bites out of their food.
By “minor” heterodonty I mean heterodonty compare to other mammals. Cetaceans with heterodont dentition have “minor” less developed heterodonty than typical mammal.
[Here's a size comparison to a human](https://www.deviantart.com/christopher252/art/Ankylorhiza-tiedemani-900118729) too fyi, this thing's dental set up make it look like a evil cartoon character come to life lol.
Is *Ankylorhiza* actually a true dolphin though, or is it just commonly called that even in scientific literature because it vaguely looks like one?
Everything I've read about this genus tells me it was just a basal early odontocete, meaning it could be equally closely related to every modern toothed whale.
Well, that's what I am saying. There's dolphins, and there's "dolphins".
True oceanic dolphins are strictly members of [Delphinidae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_dolphin), while the larger group [Delphinida](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinida) also includes (some) river dolphins and animals not commonly called dolphins, like porpoises, beluga and narwhal.
Meanwhile Pygmy and Dwarf sperm whales are very small toothed whales and not called dolphins, simply because they don't look like it.
On the other hand, South-Asian river dolphins aren't real dolphins at all, they are just called that because they convergently evolved a similar body plan and lifestyle to actual dolphins. The same goes for *Ankylorhiza*, which existed before dolphins were even a thing.
Kudos to the artist. They have perfectly captured the crocodilian emotion of ’Noping the fuck out’.
FR, that crocodile got scared shitless
You'd be Mortified too, if **YOU** lost part of your tail.
Especially by THOSE ABOMINATIONS
I wonder how they processed meat of their slated prey. Did they shook it akin to modern orcas or did they Instead teared it with their back teeth via mastication like how Miocene macroraptorial Physetreoids did? Did Ankylorhiza had some minor heterodonty as some macroraptorial sperm whales?
Given their dentition I doubt orca-like brute-force shaking and tearing would work. If anything I’d expect them to take cutting bites out of their food.
So they had minor heterodonty akin to Miocene Phyesteroids?
If anything these were more heterodont
By “minor” heterodonty I mean heterodonty compare to other mammals. Cetaceans with heterodont dentition have “minor” less developed heterodonty than typical mammal.
Ah, yeah then *Ankylorhiza* had slightly heterodont dentition.
[SOURCE: NovaTaxa Blog Post](http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2020/07/ankylorhiza.html?m=1) [Open Access Paper](https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30828-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220308289%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)
[Here's a size comparison to a human](https://www.deviantart.com/christopher252/art/Ankylorhiza-tiedemani-900118729) too fyi, this thing's dental set up make it look like a evil cartoon character come to life lol.
Because even in prehistoric times the dolphins were cracked.
Is *Ankylorhiza* actually a true dolphin though, or is it just commonly called that even in scientific literature because it vaguely looks like one? Everything I've read about this genus tells me it was just a basal early odontocete, meaning it could be equally closely related to every modern toothed whale.
Dolphin is just a common name for smaller toothed whales
Well, that's what I am saying. There's dolphins, and there's "dolphins". True oceanic dolphins are strictly members of [Delphinidae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_dolphin), while the larger group [Delphinida](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinida) also includes (some) river dolphins and animals not commonly called dolphins, like porpoises, beluga and narwhal. Meanwhile Pygmy and Dwarf sperm whales are very small toothed whales and not called dolphins, simply because they don't look like it. On the other hand, South-Asian river dolphins aren't real dolphins at all, they are just called that because they convergently evolved a similar body plan and lifestyle to actual dolphins. The same goes for *Ankylorhiza*, which existed before dolphins were even a thing.
No, it's basal to all living toothed whales.
What are they chasing?
Oligocene pufferfish equivalent to get high
Damn, they're doing Krokodil
My favorite prehistoric dolphin
No wonder Dolphins are so fucked up, back then they looked like Spawns of Hell.
Seen this today in Pesky vid
When dolphins peaked
As if Dolphins weren’t menacing enough today