Proposed mechanism of rapid self-burial (II).

• Main Authors: Giulia Bosio (842632), Alberto Collareta (744357), Claudio Di Celma (537125), Olivier Lambert (25010), Felix G. Marx (3189630), Christian de Muizon (384569), Anna Gioncada (744356), Karen Gariboldi (744354), Elisa Malinverno (744355), Rafael Varas Malca (11140946), Mario Urbina (744360), Giovanni Bianucci (686290)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Evolutionary Biology; Ecology; Marine Biology; Inorganic Chemistry; Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified; Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified; taphonomic processes; Fossil-Lagerst; taxonomic distribution; preservation characterising; scour-induced self-burial; marine vertebrates; Pisco vertebrates; sedimentation rates; attendant carbonate concretions; 890 marine; Ica Desert; fossil; tissue preservation; formation; Pisco Formation; shark teeth; taphonomic data; observations range; mineralisation processes; abundance; favourable factors; carbonate mineral precipitation; Miocene Pisco Formation; novel mechanism; Pisco; Swash; Balaenoptera acutorostrata; Phocoena phocoena
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254395.g028

Modern whales stranded and partially buried in the swash and intertidal zones of sandy beaches. All specimens sit in a scour depression developed around them as a result of erosion of the sediment surface by intense wave action. A) Specimen of Phocoena phocoena stranded in the Middelkerke beach (Belgium) in 2017 (photograph by J. Haelters). B) Two pilot whales ( Globicephala melas ) of 12 stranded in the Falcarragh beach (Donegal, Ireland) in July 2014 (photograph by S. Barnes). C) Specimen of Balaenoptera acutorostrata stranded in Bredene beach (Belgium) in December 2020 (photograph by J. Haelters). D) Carcass of Ziphius cavirostris found partially buried in the Eraclea Minoa beach (Sicily, Italy) (photograph by G. Insacco). E) A gray whale ( Eschrichtius robustus ) stranded at Emma Wood State Beach (Ventura County, California, USA‎) in May 2020 (photograph by A. Bautista).