Complete basilosaur skeleton found (with another inside)

Adam Khor

Either it was a pregnant female or a cannibal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3110718/Fossils-reveal-whale-inside-whale-eaten-shark-Grave-40-million-year-old-marine-creatures-Egypt.html

Linnaeus

Hello Adam,

Considering the small size of the whale found inside the Basilosaurus, I'd say that this was a foetus, not a meal. Most species are very interested in the protection and perpetuation of their own kind; cannibalism only occurs when one or more offspring are born with disabling physical defects, or in the case of the death of an individual which is then devoured.

I think that the Daily Mail article, however, does not state with precision if the adult Basilosaurus in question is a female...Of course it's essential to determine this! If the adult turns out to be a male, well then, we would have a case of cannibalism.

Capt'n Midnight

Whales don't have a baculum so may not be that easy to tell

Manach

From what I remember from browsing through the Paleo-texts, there were more finds of pregnant remains preserved as fossils than the much rarely instances of cannibalism, especially among the more evolved animals.

Adam Khor

Not sure about that last statement, especially if you count humans, too...