| Summary: | The Pietra leccese is a calcareous formation widely exposed in the Salento Peninsula (south Italy) and its age spans between the late Burdigalian and the early Messinian. The Pietra leccese formation is widely known for its abundant marine vertebrate fossil content that includes bony and cartilaginous fishes, chelonians, crocodiles, sirenian and cetaceans (representing the most common taxa). Even if this rich fossil assemblage has been studied for a long time, there are many specimens from the Pietra leccese formation that remained undescribed. In this thesis, some important specimens from this formation have been studied, providing a description and a systematic framework. More precisely, such an investigation includes: the first fossil record of Molidae (Actinopterygii, Tetraodontiformes) from the Pietra leccese assemblage, an isolated cetacean tooth referred to the family Inticetidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti), a new macroraptorial sperm whale (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Physeteroidea) with accession number MSNUP 17076 from the Tortonian strata of the Cisterna quarry and a novel medium-sized physeteroid (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Physeteroidea) with accession number MSNUP 16954 from the Burdigalian deposits in the vicinities of the Cursi village. This latter is affected by a strong dorsoventral compression due to the diagenesis. Since this feature would have complicated the study of this important fossil sperm whale, its cranium, the most diagnostic preserved skeletal part, has been digitally retrodeformed. Furthermore, the finite element analysis (FEA) is here used to simulate the biting action of the macroraptorial sperm whale Zygophyseter varolai from the lower Upper Miocene deposits of the Cisterna quarry. The presence of Molidae in within the Pietra leccese well matches with the palaeoenvironmental signal from this formation and with the well-known fossil ichtyofauna from the Cisterna quarry. Considering the age and the global distribution of inticetids, likely these toothed whales dispersed via the Caribbean Region and ...
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