Feeding in marine mammals: An integration of evolution and ecology through time

Berta, Annalisa; Lanzetti, Agnese

doi:10.26879/951

Cited by 16 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 133 publications

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“…Assuming solitary hunting, Acrophyseter was likely a grip-and-shear predator (sensu Peri et al [126]) limited to relatively small prey like dolphins, seals, marine sloths, seabirds, and relatively large-sized fishes. By contrast, L. melvillei could plausibly have targeted larger species like cetotheriids by means of grip-and-tear feeding (sensu Berta and Lanzetti [137]), and likely overlapped in its diet with C. megalodon, a titanic otodontid shark whose maximum body length likely exceeded 15 m [138,139].…”

Section: Carcharocles Livyatan and Other Overlords: What Ecological Role?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertebrate Palaeoecology of the Pisco Formation (Miocene, Peru): Glimpses into the Ancient Humboldt Current Ecosystem

Collareta

Lambert

Marx

et al. 2021

JMSE

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The northward-flowing Humboldt Current hosts perpetually high levels of productivity along the western coast of South America. Here, we aim to elucidate the deep-time history of this globally important ecosystem based on a detailed palaeoecological analysis of the exceptionally preserved middle–upper Miocene vertebrate assemblages of the Pisco Formation of the East Pisco Basin, southern Peru. We summarise observations on hundreds of fossil whales, dolphins, seals, seabirds, turtles, crocodiles, sharks, rays, and bony fishes to reconstruct ecological relationships in the wake of the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, and the marked cooling that followed it. The lowermost, middle Miocene Pisco sequence (P0) and its vertebrate assemblage testify to a warm, semi-enclosed, near-shore palaeoenvironment. During the first part of the Tortonian (P1), high productivity within a prominent upwelling system supported a diverse assemblage of mesopredators, at least some of which permanently resided in the Pisco embayment and used it as a nursery or breeding/calving area. Younger portions of the Pisco Formation (P2) reveal a more open setting, with wide-ranging species like rorquals increasingly dominating the vertebrate assemblage, but also local differences reflecting distance from the coast. Like today, these ancient precursors of the modern Humboldt Current Ecosystem were based on sardines, but notably differed from their present-day equivalent in being dominated by extremely large-bodied apex predators like Livyatan melvillei and Carcharocles megalodon.

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Section: Carcharocles Livyatan and Other Overlords: What Ecological Role?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertebrate Palaeoecology of the Pisco Formation (Miocene, Peru): Glimpses into the Ancient Humboldt Current Ecosystem

Collareta

Lambert

Marx

et al. 2021

JMSE

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“…The late Miocene global cooling (LMGC) between 7.8 and 5.8 Ma was a climatic event associated with ice sheet formation in Greenland, intensified winter monsoon, and biogenic bloom in the global oceans 1 – 3 . Additionally, major turnover in marine biota, such as phytoplankton and marine mammals, occurred during the late Miocene and led to the rise of the modern ecosystem 4 , 5 . However, the timing and nature of such ecological shifts and their relationships with paleoceanographic changes are still debated partly because of the lack of high-resolution records.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weakened pacific overturning circulation, winter monsoon dominance and tectonism re-organized Japan Sea paleoceanography during the Late Miocene global cooling

Matsuzaki

Ikeda

Tada

2022

Sci Rep

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The Late Miocene global cooling (LMGC; approximately 7.9–5.8 Ma) was associated with remarkable changes in monsoon dynamics, biogenic bloom in the global oceans, and the rise of modern ecosystems at the expense of old biota. However, the possible linkage between the environmental changes and ecosystem shifts during the LMGC is still debated. In this paper, we show the high-resolution changes in the fluxes of selected radiolarian species, suggesting a drastic reorganization in the paleoceanography and ecosystem in the Japan Sea during the LMGC. The endemic radiolarian Cycladophora nakasekoi dominated the Japan Sea until 7.4 Ma when the Japan Sea sediment changed from dark radiolarian-rich sediment to organic-poor diatom ooze. Changes in the fluxes of C. nakasekoi and Tricolocapsa papillosa, the latter related to changes in the Pacific central water (PCW), show 100, 200, and ~ 500 ka cycles with their high flux mostly within the darker sediment intervals during the low-eccentricity period until 7.4 Ma, suggesting that orbitally paced PCW inflow might have been the major nutrient source into the Japan Sea. At about 7.4 Ma, these species decreased at the expense of increased Larcopyle weddellium, a radiolarian related to the North Pacific intermediate water (NPIW), and Cycladophora sphaeris, a subarctic radiolarian species, implying a decrease in PCW inflow and an increase in the inflow of NPIW and subarctic shallow water. Such a change would have been related to the LMGC-induced weakening in the Pacific Meridional overturning circulation and the southward shift of the subarctic front due to intensified East Asian winter monsoon. Such a drastic reorganization in the hydrography in the Japan Sea probably caused changes in nutrient provenance from the PCW to the NPIW and resulted in faunal turnover, marked by the disappearance of the old regional and endemic faunal components, such as C. nakasekoi.

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“…Five ecological or ecomorphological traits relevant to feeding and sensory functions of the cranium were scored from the primary literature, as well as categories established in previous studies 41,51,52,81 (Table S1). Given the breadth of species in this data set, as well as inevitable uncertainties on ecology and life history for many species, and the need for a minimum of five species in each bin for statistical analyses, we used relatively broad categories to capture diet and habitat.…”

Section: Ecological Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…'Edentulous' species are characterized by their lack of functional teeth and in many, but not all, cases possess baleen. 81 Diet Diet was divided into five categories: 'fish', 'benthic invertebrates and fish', 'cephalopods and fish', 'tetrapods + fish', 'zooplankton and fish'. In the latter four categories, fish make up a substantial but minority component of the diet.…”

Section: Ecological Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%