My contribution to #Perucetus discourse:

A purposefully ignorant reconstruction of the #PygmyRightWhale #Caperea as a weird manatee-whale creature.

#Caperea_marginata

And an #AllTomorrows “”reconstruction”” of #Caperea as a sluggish, grungy, barrel-bodied manatee-like animal. #SpeculativeZoology #AllYesterdays

Oh right, back in the day, I made images showing off the peculiar proportions of #Caperea compared to the more conventional Fin #Whale as well as a manatee. You’d never be able to guess Caperea looks so weird inside!

The cetotheriid Cetotherium has the next-lowest lumbar count at 8 and a more normal thoracic count of 10. It’s far less extreme but certainly an interesting similarity.

The #skeleton of #Caperea is *really* weird for a cetacean — it has more thoracic vertebrae than any extant cetacean (17-18) and they’re fairly elongate. Contrarily, there are very few lumbers (0-1). This is quite similar to the condition in manatees (!) but as you can tell from the video, this species looks like a surprisingly standard #cetacean

Holy #Caperea ! Easily the best footage of this enigmatic little #Cetacean I’ve ever seen.

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101806474

#PygmyRightWhale #Caperea_marginata