A Miocene pygmy right whale fossil from Australia

Marx, Felix G.; Park, Travis; Fitzgerald, Erich M. G.; Evans, Alistair R.

doi:10.7717/peerj.5025

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…Nevertheless, in many studies this assumption is not (or cannot be) tested because of logistical constraints, for example, where using multiple specimens for each species is not feasible due to time or cost restrictions, or because samples are limited. Palaeontological studies, for example, commonly use a single individual as representative of a whole population or species because of the rarity of fossils (Ekdale & Racicot, 2015;Ekdale, 2016;Park et al, 2017a;Gonzales, Malinzak & Kay, 2019;Marx et al, 2018;Racicot et al, 2019;Galatius et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific variation in the cochleae of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and its implications for comparative studies across odontocetes

Martins

Park

Racicot

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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In morphological traits, variation within species is generally considered to be lower than variation among species, although this assumption is rarely tested. This is particularly important in fields like palaeontology, where it is common to use a single individual as representative of a species due to the rarity of fossils. Here, we investigated intraspecific variation in the cochleae of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena). Interspecific variation of cochlear morphology is well characterised among odontocetes (toothed whales) because of the importance of the structure in echolocation, but generally these studies use only a single cochlea to represent each species. In this study we compare variation within the cochleae of 18 specimens of P. phocoena with variations in cochlear morphology across 51 other odontocete species. Using both 3D landmark and linear measurement data, we performed Generalised Procrustes and principal component analyses to quantify shape variation. We then quantified intraspecific variation in our sample of P. phocoena by estimating disparity and the coefficient of variation for our 3D and linear data respectively. Finally, to determine whether intraspecific variation may confound the results of studies of interspecific variation, we used multivariate and univariate analyses of variance to test whether variation within the specimens of P. phocoena was significantly lower than that across odontocetes. We found low levels of intraspecific variation in the cochleae of P. phocoena, and that cochlear shape within P. phocoena was significantly less variable than across odontocetes. Although future studies should attempt to use multiple cochleae for every species, our results suggest that using just one cochlea for each species should not strongly influence the conclusions of comparative studies if our results are consistent across Cetacea.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific variation in the cochleae of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and its implications for comparative studies across odontocetes

Martins

Park

Racicot

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…Fossil record of pygmy right whales. Neobalaenines have a largely obscure fossil record that has only recently been somewhat elucidated by finds from Peru, Japan, Italy, Australia and, perhaps, Argentina (Bisconti, 2012;Fitzgerald, 2012;Buono et al, 2014;Tsai et al, 2017;Marx et al, 2018). The tympanic bulla described here (SAM-PQ-3090) is the first pygmy right whale fossil ever reported from Africa, and only the seventh fossil described worldwide.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa

Govender

Marx²

2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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Marine sediments from the western coast of southern Africa record the origin of the Benguela Upwelling System, one of the most productive in the world. High productivity, in turn, is reflected in a diverse marine mammal fossil assemblage, comprising whales, dolphins and a phocid seal. Here, we describe new records of baleen whale (mysticete) fossils from the early Pliocene localities of Saldanha Steel, Milnerton and Langebaanweg, as well as several potentially younger specimens trawled from offshore sediments. The presence of the extinct rorquals Diunatans and Fragilicetus suggests biogeographical links with the eastern North Atlantic and, thus, potentially antitropical population structuring. The trawled specimens also include rorquals (e.g., the blue whale, Balaenoptera cf. musculus), as well as a right whale (Eubalaena) and a pygmy right whale (Caperea). The latter is the first fossil of this family every discovered in Africa, and only the seventh specimen to be reported worldwide.

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“…Until now, the vertebrate palaeontology of the Black Rock Sandstone has been almost exclusively represented by the rich Beaumaris Local Fauna of Beaumaris Bay, comprised of: chondrichthyan and actinopterygian fish (Kemp, 1991;Fitzgerald, 2004); marine and freshwater turtles (Fitzgerald and Kool, 2015;Rule et al, 2021b); penguins (Park and Fitzgerald, 2012a), pelagornithid birds (Fitzgerald et al, 2012), an albatross (Wilkinson, 1969), a dromornithid (Park and Fitzgerald, 2012b); marsupials (Piper et al, 2006); a sirenian (Fitzgerald et al, 2013); phocid seals (Rule et al, 2020b(Rule et al, , 2021a; and cetaceans (Fordyce, 1982;Fitzgerald, 2004Fitzgerald, , 2012Marx et al, 2018). The only prior documentation of a vertebrate fossil from Black Rock is a zygomaturine diprotodontid left maxilla (erroneously reported as a dentary from Beaumaris) figured by Vickers-Rich and Rich (1993:177) and Warne et al (2003:638).…”

Section: Locality and Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Pinniped (Mammalia: Carnivora) fossils from Black Rock, a new late Neogene vertebrate locality in Victoria, Australia

Rule

Fitzgerald

2022

Palaeontol Electron

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The fossil record of true seals (Family Phocidae) is notoriously poorly preserved, most notably in the Southern Hemisphere. This fossil record bias has made it difficult to assess whether populations of phocid species in the Southern Hemisphere remained resident in particular regions throughout deep time, with only the eastern South Pacific preserving a near-continuous fossil record. Here we report two new seal fossil remains from the late Miocene-early Pliocene of southeastern Australia, discovered from a new site, Black Rock. This is the fourth phocid fossil site in Australia, and the seventh in Australasia. The two fossils are referrable to the clades Pinnipedia and Monachinae. Combined with other recent fossil phocid finds in Australasia, this suggests that true seals were continuously present in the region at least throughout the Pliocene. This lends further support for the importance of Australasia in the global evolution of true seals.

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A Miocene pygmy right whale fossil from Australia

Cited by 6 publications

References 37 publications

Intraspecific variation in the cochleae of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and its implications for comparative studies across odontocetes

Intraspecific variation in the cochleae of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and its implications for comparative studies across odontocetes

New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa

Pinniped (Mammalia: Carnivora) fossils from Black Rock, a new late Neogene vertebrate locality in Victoria, Australia

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