Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale
Physeteroidea (sperm whales) attained great diversity during the Miocene and early Pliocene, and the phosphatic sands of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain have produced thousands of specimens. Although postcranial and cranial materials are rare, teeth are remarkably common and have the potential to pr...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Format: | Text |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Taylor & Francis
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6118694 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/Living_fast_and_dying_young_Life_history_and_ecology_of_a_Neogene_sperm_whale/6118694 |
id |
ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.6118694 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.6118694 2023-05-15T15:41:49+02:00 Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale K. N. Gilbert L. C. Ivany M. D. Uhen 2018 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6118694 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/Living_fast_and_dying_young_Life_history_and_ecology_of_a_Neogene_sperm_whale/6118694 unknown Taylor & Francis https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1439038 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry FOS Chemical sciences Text article-journal Journal contribution ScholarlyArticle 2018 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6118694 https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1439038 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Physeteroidea (sperm whales) attained great diversity during the Miocene and early Pliocene, and the phosphatic sands of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain have produced thousands of specimens. Although postcranial and cranial materials are rare, teeth are remarkably common and have the potential to provide valuable insight into the lives of these animals. We examine a suite of Physeteroidea indet. teeth from the Lee Creek Mine to better constrain the life history and ecology of this extinct group. Wear facets indicate that these animals, unlike modern sperm whales, had both maxillary and mandibular teeth, suggesting a raptorial feeding ecology more akin to killer whales. A relationship between tooth diameter and body size established for modern odontocetes suggests that these animals as adults were also about the size of modern killer whales. Because physeteroid teeth grow continuously over ontogeny and are not replaced, counts of accretionary growth layer groups can be used to ascertain the age of an animal at death. Tallies of growth increments from 10 teeth, including some of the largest available, reveal that life spans only rarely exceeded 20 years, significantly shorter than the 65+ years typical of modern sperm whales or orcas. Despite their large size, these odontocetes experienced a ‘fast’ life history, more like beluga whales today. We suggest that the rapid growth and short life span exhibited by the Lee Creek physeteroids are, like the modern beluga, evolutionary responses to high predation pressure imposed by large co-occurring predatory taxa, particularly including Carcharocles megalodon or other large macroraptorial physeteorids. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Gilbert, K. N., L. C. Ivany, and M. D. Uhen. 2018. Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1439038. Text Beluga Beluga* Sperm whale DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Lee Creek ENVELOPE(-138.388,-138.388,63.983,63.983) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry FOS Chemical sciences |
spellingShingle |
Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry FOS Chemical sciences K. N. Gilbert L. C. Ivany M. D. Uhen Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale |
topic_facet |
Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry FOS Chemical sciences |
description |
Physeteroidea (sperm whales) attained great diversity during the Miocene and early Pliocene, and the phosphatic sands of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain have produced thousands of specimens. Although postcranial and cranial materials are rare, teeth are remarkably common and have the potential to provide valuable insight into the lives of these animals. We examine a suite of Physeteroidea indet. teeth from the Lee Creek Mine to better constrain the life history and ecology of this extinct group. Wear facets indicate that these animals, unlike modern sperm whales, had both maxillary and mandibular teeth, suggesting a raptorial feeding ecology more akin to killer whales. A relationship between tooth diameter and body size established for modern odontocetes suggests that these animals as adults were also about the size of modern killer whales. Because physeteroid teeth grow continuously over ontogeny and are not replaced, counts of accretionary growth layer groups can be used to ascertain the age of an animal at death. Tallies of growth increments from 10 teeth, including some of the largest available, reveal that life spans only rarely exceeded 20 years, significantly shorter than the 65+ years typical of modern sperm whales or orcas. Despite their large size, these odontocetes experienced a ‘fast’ life history, more like beluga whales today. We suggest that the rapid growth and short life span exhibited by the Lee Creek physeteroids are, like the modern beluga, evolutionary responses to high predation pressure imposed by large co-occurring predatory taxa, particularly including Carcharocles megalodon or other large macroraptorial physeteorids. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Gilbert, K. N., L. C. Ivany, and M. D. Uhen. 2018. Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1439038. |
format |
Text |
author |
K. N. Gilbert L. C. Ivany M. D. Uhen |
author_facet |
K. N. Gilbert L. C. Ivany M. D. Uhen |
author_sort |
K. N. Gilbert |
title |
Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale |
title_short |
Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale |
title_full |
Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale |
title_fullStr |
Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale |
title_full_unstemmed |
Living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a Neogene sperm whale |
title_sort |
living fast and dying young: life history and ecology of a neogene sperm whale |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6118694 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/Living_fast_and_dying_young_Life_history_and_ecology_of_a_Neogene_sperm_whale/6118694 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-138.388,-138.388,63.983,63.983) |
geographic |
Lee Creek |
geographic_facet |
Lee Creek |
genre |
Beluga Beluga* Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Beluga Beluga* Sperm whale |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1439038 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6118694 https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1439038 |
_version_ |
1766374707026722816 |