The Murray River Whale

Artwork for a new paper! The Murray River whale 🐋 (NMV P218462, shown in situ in picture 2) appears to show the first definitive evidence of gigantism in baleen whales in the early Miocene (~20 million years ago) of the Southern Hemisphere. A time period and region we know precious little about! This chonky lad would have been 9 metres long when most of its baleen bearing contemporaries were little more than 3-4m in length. This one was *a lot* of fun to paint and a good challenge for myself to turn a project around in a shorter timeframe.