The recently published article by Mr Marx (24) shows that the origin and evolution of modern whales were driven by a combination of food abundance and climate change.
The article is co-authored by Dr Mark Uhen, of George Mason University in the United States.
"I'm very happy.
"I was really very pleasantly surprised," Mr Marx said about his publication success.
The new research settles uncertainty over whether the fossil record of whale diversity truly reflects the evolutionary history of modern whales, or provides a flawed picture affected by the amount of preserved sedimentary rock available for paleontologists to search, he says.
The analysis of rock, marine plant life and climate-related data sets covering millions of years showed that the fossil record of cetaceans was not, in fact, the result of a "misleading sedimentary rock record".
The research also highlights links between mighty whales - the blue whale grows up to 33m long and weighs up to 190 tonnes- and tiny diatoms, marine plants ranging in size from microscopic to about 2mm across.
Diatoms help form the base of the marine food web.
The fossil record showed that diatoms and whales rose and fell in diversity together during most of the past 30 million years, he said.
"When diatoms are dominant in oceans, it creates a shortened food web that would enable more efficient foraging by whales, allowing them to grow larger, more abundant and more diverse."
Mr Marx's PhD supervisor, Otago geologist Associate Prof Ewan Fordyce, said the publication was a "great achievement".