Dear colleagues, On behalf of my co-authors, I am excited to announce the publication of the following open access article in PeerJ: https://peerj.com/articles/7629/ Norrisanima miocaena: a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California Citation: Leslie MS, Peredo CM, Pyenson ND. 2019. *Norrisanima miocaena*, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California. PeerJ 7:e7629 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7629 Abstract: Rorqual whales are among the most species rich group of baleen whales (or mysticetes) alive today, yet the monophyly of the traditional grouping (i.e., Balaenopteridae) remains unclear. Additionally, many fossil mysticetes putatively assigned to either Balaenopteridae or Balaenopteroidea may actually belong to stem lineages, although many of these fossil taxa suffer from inadequate descriptions of fragmentary skeletal material. Here we provide a redescription of the holotype of *Megaptera miocaena*, a fossil balaenopteroid from the Monterey Formation of California, which consists of a partial cranium, a fragment of the rostrum, a single vertebra, and both tympanoperiotics. Kellogg (1922) <https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Description%20of%20the%20skull%20of%20Megaptera%20miocaena,%20a%20fossil%20humpback%20whale%20from%20the%20Miocene%20diatomaceous%20earth%20of%20Lompoc,%20California&author=Kellogg&publication_year=1922> assigned the type specimen to the genus *Megaptera* Gray (1846) <https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=On%20the%20cetaceous%20animals&author=Gray&publication_year=1846>, on the basis of its broad similarities to distinctive traits in the cranium of extant humpback whales (*Megaptera novaeangliae* (Borowski, 1781 <https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Gemeinn%C3%BCzzige%20Naturgeschichte%20des%20Thierreichs:%20darinn%20die%20merkw%C3%BCrdigsten%20und%20n%C3%BCzlichsten%20Thiere%20in%20systematischer%20Ordnung%20beschrieben%20und%20alle%20Geschlechter%20in%20Abbildungen%20nach%20der%20Natur%20vorgestellet%20warden&author=Borowski&publication_year=1781>)). Subsequent phylogenetic analyses have found these two species as sister taxa in morphological datasets alone; the most recent systematic analyses using both molecular and morphological data sets place *Megaptera miocaena* as a stem balaenopteroid unrelated to humpback whales. Here, we redescribe the type specimen of *Megaptera miocaena* in the context of other fossil balaenopteroids discovered nearly a century since Kellogg’s original description and provide a morphological basis for discriminating it from *Megaptera novaeangliae*. We also provide a new generic name and recombine the taxon as *Norrisanima miocaena*, gen. nov., to reflect its phylogenetic position outside of crown Balaenopteroidea, unrelated to extant *Megaptera*. Lastly, we refine the stratigraphic age of *Norrisanima miocaena*, based on associated microfossils to a Tortonian age (7.6–7.3 Ma), which carries implications for understanding the origin of key features associated with feeding and body size evolution in this group of whales. Etymology: Combining the surname Norris and the Latin *anima* (breath of life), the generic name honors the late Dr. Kenneth S. Norris and his son, Dr. Richard D. Norris, for their contributions to the natural history of California, marine mammalogy, and evolution in the marine realm. Sincerely, Matt ---------- Matthew S. Leslie Ph.D. Department of Biology Swarthmore College