Supplementary material from "Evolution and development of the cetacean skull roof: a case study in novelty and homology" ...

• Main Authors: Roston, R. A., Boessenecker, R. W., Geisler, J. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2023
• Subjects: Evolutionary Biology; FOS Biological sciences; toothed whales
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6534061.v1; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Evolution_and_development_of_the_cetacean_skull_roof_a_case_study_in_novelty_and_homology_/6534061/1

Skulls of living whales and dolphins (cetaceans) are telescoped–bones of the skull roof are overlapped by expanded facial bones and/or anteriorly extended occipital bones. Evolution of the underlying skull roof (calvarium), which lies between the telescoped regions, is relatively unstudied. We explore the evolution and development of the calvarium of toothed whales (odontocetes) by integrating fetal data with Oligocene odontocete fossils from North America, including eight neonatal and juvenile skulls of Olympicetus †. We identified two potential synapomorphies of crown Cetacea: contact of interparietals with frontals, and a single anterior median interparietal (AMI) element. Within Odontoceti, loss of contact between the parietals diagnoses the clade including Delphinida, Ziphiidae and Platanistidae (=Synrhina). Delphinida is characterized by a greatly enlarged interparietal. New fetal series of delphinoids reveal a consistent developmental pattern with three elements: the AMI and bilateral posterior ...