ziphiidae – Nix Illustration

Beneziphius

Beneziphius cetariensis was an early beaked whale that lived off the coast of what is now the northwest Iberian peninsula.

It’s only known from a partial skull that was fished up by bottom trawling nets from the seafloor, so its exact age isn’t known, but based on related species it’s estimated to date to somewhere between the mid-Miocene and early Pliocene, around 13-5 million years ago.

About 4m long (~13′), it had a fairly short narrow snout and was functionally toothless, with evidence of only small vestigial teeth that would have been fully embedded in its gums. Males of this species probably had a pair of tusk-like “battle teeth” at the tip of their lower jaw, similar to some other beaked whales, which would have been used in fights against each other.

The back of Beneziphius’ skull was also proportionally tall, and although not as elaborate as some other fossil species this may still have functioned like “internal antlers” — display structures visible only via echolocation.

Flandriacetus

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.

Ninoziphius

Ninoziphius platyrostris was an early beaked whale that lived during the late Miocene (~6 million years ago) in warm coastal waters covering what is now southwestern Peru. Its ancestors appear to have branched off from all other beaked whales very early in the group’s history, indicating a “ghost lineage” going back to at least 17 million years ago.

About 4.4m long (~14’5″), it was less specialized for suction feeding and deep diving than modern beaked whales. Also unlike most modern species its jaws were lined with numerous interlocking teeth, with heavy wear suggesting it may have hunted close to the seafloor, where disturbed sand and grit would have regularly ended up in its mouth along with its prey and steadily ground down its teeth during its lifetime.

Males had a pair of stout tusks at the tip of their upward-curving lower jaw, with possibly a second smaller set of tusks behind them, which were probably used for fighting each other like in modern beaked whales.

Its shallow water habitat and more abrasive diet suggest Ninoziphius’ lifestyle was much more like modern dolphins than modern beaked whales, and other early beaked whales like Messapicetus similarly seem to have occupied dolphin-like ecological niches.

These dolphin-like forms disappeared around the same time that true dolphins began to diversify, possibly struggling to compete for the same food sources, while other beaked whales that had begun to specialize for deep sea diving survived and thrived. Interestingly this ecological shift seems to have happened twice, in two separate beaked whale lineages – although only one of them still survives today – with bizarre bony “internal antlers” even independently evolving in both groups.

Globicetus

Globicetus hiberus, a 5m long (16′4″) beaked whale from the Atlantic coast of Portugal and Spain. Its fossils can’t be easily dated since they were fished up from the seafloor, but it was probably around Early-to-Mid Miocene in age (~20-14 mya).

Its skull sported an odd bony sphere at the base of its snout, just in front of the melon, which appears to have been larger and more prominent in males than in females. Many modern beaked whales also have sexually dimorphic crests, ridges, and domes in their skulls, and these structures may function as sort of “internal antlers” – a display structure the whales can “see” via echolocation that signals their size, strength, and health to each other.