Ancient Chinese Fossil Unveils Reptiles' Whale-Like Filter Feeding in Prehistoric Era

A 250-million-year-old reptile fossil, Hupehsuchus, discovered in China, reveals that it used a whale-like filter-feeding method, providing insight into early marine ecosystems. The ancient reptile had soft structures, an expanding throat region, and baleen whale-like structures to filter food items. The discovery of these adaptations in an early marine reptile sheds light on the rapid re-population of the oceans after the end-Permian mass extinction. The Hupehsuchus skulls exhibit grooves and notches similar to those found in baleen whales, suggesting independent evolution into some form of baleen.