Forgotten Mediterranean calving grounds of grey and North Atlantic right whales: evidence from Roman archaeological records

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, Ana, Charpentier, Anne, Bernal-Casasola, Darío, Gardeisen, Armelle, Nores, Carlos, Pis Millán, José Antonio, Mcgrath, Krista, Speller, Camilla
• Other Authors: Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), Archéologie des Sociétés Méditerranéennes (ASM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Ministère de la Culture (MC), INDUROT, University of Oviedo, Departments of Archaeology York (BioArch), University of York York, UK
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: ancient DNA barcoding; shifting baseline; collagen fingerprinting (ZooMS); Atlantic grey whale; North Atlantic right whale; antiquity; archeo; envir; Eubalaena glacialis; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0961; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01841233

International audience Right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) were extirpated from the eastern North Atlantic by commercial whaling. Grey whales (Eschrichtius robustus) disappeared from the entire North Atlantic in still-mysterious circumstances. Here, we test the hypotheses that both species previously occurred in the Mediterranean Sea, an area not currently considered part of their historical range. We used ancient DNA barcoding and collagen fingerprinting methods to taxonomically identify a rare set of 10 presumed whale bones from Roman and pre-Roman archaeological sites in the Strait of Gibraltar region, plus an additional bone from the Asturian coast. We identified three right whales, and three grey whales, demonstrating that the ranges of both of these species historically encompassed the Gibraltar region, probably including the Mediterranean Sea as calving grounds. Our results significantly extend the known range of the Atlantic grey whale, and suggest that 2000 years ago, right and grey whales were common when compared with other whale species. The disappearance of right and grey whales from the Mediterranean region is likely to have been accompanied by broader ecosystem impacts, including the disappearance of their predators (killer whales) and a reduction in marine primary productivity. The evidence that these two coastal and highly accessible species were present along the shores of the Roman Empire raises the hypothesis that they may have formed the basis of a forgotten whaling industry.