Interactive cetacean phylogeny

From Pakicetus, a four-legged land mammal 50 million years old, to the 90 living cetacean species: this interactive phylogenetic tree traces the diversification of the order Cetacea. Click on any node (suborder, family or species) to find its divergence date, its key evolutionary features and its position in the scientific classification.

The tree reads from left to right: on the left, the common trunk (Cetacea, descended from terrestrial artiodactyls); on the right, the living species. The branches separate at the divergence dates estimated by molecular phylogeny (cross-checked against the available fossils). You will find the 14 mysticete species (baleen whales) and the ~76 odontocete species (toothed whales) spread across 10 living families plus 1 very recently extinct family (Lipotidae, the Yangtze baiji, functionally extinct since 2006).

To go further into cetacean evolution, see also the interactive timeline of evolution (from Pakicetus to Balaenoptera musculus) and the page The terrestrial ancestor of cetaceans.