Flandriacetus gijseni was an early beaked whale that lived during the late Miocene, about 8 million years ago, in nearshore marine waters covering what is now the Netherlands.
Around 4m long (~13′), it had a long snout lined with small sharp teeth – unlike modern beaked whales which are mostly toothless – and much like its close relative Messapicetus it probably led a more dolphin-like lifestyle feeding on small fish near the surface.
It’s currently the youngest known example of a long-snouted stem beaked whale, a holdover from a time when these cetaceans were much more ecologically diverse than they are today.
References:
- Bianucci, Giovanni, et al. “New beaked whales from the late Miocene of Peru and evidence for convergent evolution in stem and crown Ziphiidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti).” PeerJ 4 (2016): e2479. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2479
- Post, K., Bosselaers, M., & Munsterman, D. “A new longirostrine beaked whale Flandriacetus gijseni Gen. et sp. nov. (Ziphiidae, Cetacea, Mammalia) from the Tortonian of the North Sea Basin.” Deinsea 23 (2025): 1-31. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17880020
- Ramassamy, Benjamin, et al. “Description of the skeleton of the fossil beaked whale Messapicetus gregarius: searching potential proxies for deep-diving abilities.” Fossil Record 21.1 (2018): 11-32. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-11-2018
- Wikipedia contributors. “Beaked whale” Wikipedia, 16 Oct. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaked_whale