Hupehsuchus of the Triassic Filtered Plankton Like Modern Baleen Whales

Hupehsuchus filter-feeding reconstruction（Courtesy of Shunyi Shu & Long Cheng, Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey ）

Among modern marine giants, several animals obtain food by filtering tiny organisms from seawater. Baleen whales and whale sharks are two well-known examples, yet they rely on very different anatomical solutions. Baleen whales possess baleen plates derived from specialized skin tissues of the upper jaw. These structures are made of keratin, the same material that forms human hair and fingernails. Whale sharks, by contrast, have extremely small teeth and rely primarily on modified gill-arch structures to sieve small organisms from the water.

But did filter feeders exist in the oceans during the age of dinosaurs?

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