Whales, dolphins, and porpoises (cetaceans) have some of the strangest skulls among mammals, in large part due to phenomena known as "telescoping"--extensive bone overlap and shortening of the distances between non-adjacent bones. Telescoping is an important example of the extremes of mammalian evolution and the role of craniofacial sutures.

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Early in embryonic development, cetacean (e.g., whale & dolphin) embryos resemble the embryos of other mammals, but by the time they are born, their noses have shifted position and orientation to become a blowhole. How does the nose end up in this new location? While all cetaceans have blowholes, members of of the two living cetacean sub-groups, toothed whales (odontocetes) and baleen whales (mysticetes) undergo different developmental transformations to turn their noses into blowholes.

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