New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa
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 descr...
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crfrontiers:10.3389/feart.2022.1058104 2024-02-11T10:02:22+01:00 New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa Govender, Romala Marx, Felix G. National Research Foundation 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1058104 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.1058104/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Earth Science volume 10 ISSN 2296-6463 General Earth and Planetary Sciences journal-article 2023 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1058104 2024-01-26T09:58:21Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whale Blue whale North Atlantic Frontiers (Publisher) Frontiers in Earth Science 10 |
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General Earth and Planetary Sciences |
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General Earth and Planetary Sciences Govender, Romala Marx, Felix G. New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences |
description |
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. |
author2 |
National Research Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Govender, Romala Marx, Felix G. |
author_facet |
Govender, Romala Marx, Felix G. |
author_sort |
Govender, Romala |
title |
New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa |
title_short |
New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa |
title_full |
New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa |
title_fullStr |
New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
New cetacean fossils from the late Cenozoic of South Africa |
title_sort |
new cetacean fossils from the late cenozoic of south africa |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1058104 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.1058104/full |
genre |
baleen whale Blue whale North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
baleen whale Blue whale North Atlantic |
op_source |
Frontiers in Earth Science volume 10 ISSN 2296-6463 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1058104 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Earth Science |
container_volume |
10 |
_version_ |
1790598300401926144 |