Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales
Toothed cetacean (Odontoceti) lineages in the Miocene and Pliocene evolved rostra that are proportionally more elongate than any other aquatic mammal or reptile, living or extinct. Their similarities in cranial proportions to billfish may suggest a convergent feeding style, where the rostrum is swep...
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The Paleontological Society
2018
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ftbioone:10.1017/pab.2018.33 2024-06-02T08:15:16+00:00 Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales Matthew R. McCurry Nicholas D. Pyenson Matthew R. McCurry Nicholas D. Pyenson world 2018-11-06 text/HTML https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.33 en eng The Paleontological Society doi:10.1017/pab.2018.33 All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.33 Text 2018 ftbioone https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.33 2024-05-07T00:48:07Z Toothed cetacean (Odontoceti) lineages in the Miocene and Pliocene evolved rostra that are proportionally more elongate than any other aquatic mammal or reptile, living or extinct. Their similarities in cranial proportions to billfish may suggest a convergent feeding style, where the rostrum is swept through the water to hit and stun prey. Here we calculated second moment of area from rostral cross sections of these fossil odontocete taxa, as well as from extant ecological analogues, to infer variation in feeding behavior. Our results show that the extremely long rostra of extinct toothed whales vary considerably in functionally relevant measures of shape and likely exhibited a diversity of feeding behaviors, ranging from those similar to modern odontocetes to those convergent with billfish. Eustatic sea-level and temperature maxima of the Miocene likely led to changes in prey characteristics or abundance that enabled the repeated evolution of this extreme morphotype, which later went extinct during late Pliocene climatic deterioration. Text toothed whales BioOne Online Journals Paleobiology 45 1 21 29 |
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Open Polar |
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BioOne Online Journals |
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ftbioone |
language |
English |
description |
Toothed cetacean (Odontoceti) lineages in the Miocene and Pliocene evolved rostra that are proportionally more elongate than any other aquatic mammal or reptile, living or extinct. Their similarities in cranial proportions to billfish may suggest a convergent feeding style, where the rostrum is swept through the water to hit and stun prey. Here we calculated second moment of area from rostral cross sections of these fossil odontocete taxa, as well as from extant ecological analogues, to infer variation in feeding behavior. Our results show that the extremely long rostra of extinct toothed whales vary considerably in functionally relevant measures of shape and likely exhibited a diversity of feeding behaviors, ranging from those similar to modern odontocetes to those convergent with billfish. Eustatic sea-level and temperature maxima of the Miocene likely led to changes in prey characteristics or abundance that enabled the repeated evolution of this extreme morphotype, which later went extinct during late Pliocene climatic deterioration. |
author2 |
Matthew R. McCurry Nicholas D. Pyenson |
format |
Text |
author |
Matthew R. McCurry Nicholas D. Pyenson |
spellingShingle |
Matthew R. McCurry Nicholas D. Pyenson Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales |
author_facet |
Matthew R. McCurry Nicholas D. Pyenson |
author_sort |
Matthew R. McCurry |
title |
Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales |
title_short |
Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales |
title_full |
Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales |
title_fullStr |
Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales |
title_sort |
hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales |
publisher |
The Paleontological Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.33 |
op_coverage |
world |
genre |
toothed whales |
genre_facet |
toothed whales |
op_source |
https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.33 |
op_relation |
doi:10.1017/pab.2018.33 |
op_rights |
All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.33 |
container_title |
Paleobiology |
container_volume |
45 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
21 |
op_container_end_page |
29 |
_version_ |
1800739392498696192 |