Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California
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 actuall...
Published in: | PeerJ |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Other Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
PeerJ
2019
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7629 https://peerj.com/articles/7629.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/7629.xml https://peerj.com/articles/7629.html |
id |
crpeerj:10.7717/peerj.7629 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crpeerj:10.7717/peerj.7629 2024-09-15T17:57:30+00:00 Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California Leslie, Matthew S. Peredo, Carlos Mauricio Pyenson, Nicholas D. Smithsonian Institution’s Remington Kellogg Fund and the Basis Foundation Smithsonian Institution’s G. Wayne Clough fellowship Smithsonian Institution’s Secretary’s Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7629 https://peerj.com/articles/7629.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/7629.xml https://peerj.com/articles/7629.html en eng PeerJ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PeerJ volume 7, page e7629 ISSN 2167-8359 journal-article 2019 crpeerj https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7629 2024-08-06T04:11:09Z 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) assigned the type specimen to the genus Megaptera Gray (1846), on the basis of its broad similarities to distinctive traits in the cranium of extant humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whales Megaptera novaeangliae PeerJ Publishing PeerJ 7 e7629 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PeerJ Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crpeerj |
language |
English |
description |
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) assigned the type specimen to the genus Megaptera Gray (1846), on the basis of its broad similarities to distinctive traits in the cranium of extant humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 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. |
author2 |
Smithsonian Institution’s Remington Kellogg Fund and the Basis Foundation Smithsonian Institution’s G. Wayne Clough fellowship Smithsonian Institution’s Secretary’s Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Leslie, Matthew S. Peredo, Carlos Mauricio Pyenson, Nicholas D. |
spellingShingle |
Leslie, Matthew S. Peredo, Carlos Mauricio Pyenson, Nicholas D. Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California |
author_facet |
Leslie, Matthew S. Peredo, Carlos Mauricio Pyenson, Nicholas D. |
author_sort |
Leslie, Matthew S. |
title |
Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California |
title_short |
Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California |
title_full |
Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California |
title_fullStr |
Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California |
title_full_unstemmed |
Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California |
title_sort |
norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (mammalia, cetacea) from the miocene of california |
publisher |
PeerJ |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7629 https://peerj.com/articles/7629.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/7629.xml https://peerj.com/articles/7629.html |
genre |
baleen whales Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
baleen whales Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_source |
PeerJ volume 7, page e7629 ISSN 2167-8359 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7629 |
container_title |
PeerJ |
container_volume |
7 |
container_start_page |
e7629 |
_version_ |
1810433637679628288 |