This project is a collaboration between the University of California - Merced and University of Alaska Fairbanks. Climate change and the overuse of natural resources are causing significant shifts in ecological communities, leading to novel states that lack modern equivalents. These changes often result in reduced species diversity and fewer interactions between species. To predict how future ecosystems will respond, it is essential to study the dynamics of past ecosystems, especially those from the distant past. Earth's history includes environmental disturbances of similar magnitude and direction to what we are experiencing today, and the imprints of these events are left on ancient ecological communities that are recorded in the fossil and historical record. This research aims to uncover how marine communities have responded to climate change and resource exploitation in the past, focusing on the evolution of large-bodied filter-feeding baleen whales and their apex predators near the Eocene-Oligocene transition, as well as the more recent anthropogenic impacts of industrialized fishing on these species. By studying these evolutionary and anthropogenic shifts, the aim is to reveal how past changes have shaped marine food web structures and their broader ecological function, providing insight into the potential future of marine ecosystems. The project will support the training of graduate student researchers at the University of California Merced and the University of Al