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May 30, 2025, 4:00 - 5:00 PM

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Oct 16, 2025, 12:00 PM - Oct 18, 2025, 2:00 PM

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PhD Dissertation Defense - Environmental Science & Policy

Apr 15, 2024, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Johnson Center Meeting Room E, Room 334 and 
Virtual - contact espgrad@gmu.edu for Zoom meeting info

PhD Dissertation
Department of Environmental Science and Policy
College of Science
George Mason University

 

Candidate: Nickolas A. Brand
Defense Date and Time: April 15, 2024 at 11:00 am
Defense Location: Hybrid: Johnson Center Meeting Room E, Room 334 and Virtual
Title: Filter Feeders in the Making: Examining the Evolution, Expansion, and Ecology of the Stem Mysticetes


Dissertation Director: Dr. Mark D. Uhen
Committee: Dr. David Luther, Dr. Stacey Verardo, Dr. Carlos M. Peredo

 

 ABSTRACT

Modern baleen whales evolved from toothed ancestors in the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene. The relationships and ecology of this group have been highly controversial, with few hypotheses retaining stable consensus. This dissertation provides a study of stem mysticete phylogenetics and paleobiogeography, which refutes a rising hypothesis wherein basal mysticetes are reclassified as archaeocetes. Elliptic Fourier Analysis of cheek teeth indicates a divergence in form of mysticete and odontocete teeth by the late Chattian. Finally, an analysis of lateral palatal foramina in extant cetaceans provides evidence against a longstanding, controversial hypothesis that these structures are indicative of baleen in fossil mysticetes.

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