A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea
Among living cetaceans, dwarf and pygmy sperm whales (Kogia) are the only members of the family Kogiidae, regarded as diminutive and elusive relatives of the great sperm whale Physeter. Kogiids are known as fossils by several skulls, teeth, and ear bones from Neogene deposits of the Northern Hemisph...
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ftunivpisairis:oai:arpi.unipi.it:11568/1000367 2024-04-21T08:12:21+00:00 A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea ALBERTO COLLARETA FRANCO CIGALA FULGOSI GIOVANNI BIANUCCI Collareta, Alberto CIGALA FULGOSI, Franco Bianucci, Giovanni 2019 STAMPA http://hdl.handle.net/11568/1000367 https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00578.2018 https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app005782018.html eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000486595900011 volume:64 issue:3 firstpage:609 lastpage:626 numberofpages:18 journal:ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA http://hdl.handle.net/11568/1000367 doi:10.4202/app.00578.2018 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-85072298803 https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app005782018.html info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Mammalia Cetacea Odontoceti Physeteroidea Kogiinae oceanisation Pliocene Northern Apennines info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2019 ftunivpisairis https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00578.2018 2024-03-28T01:35:32Z Among living cetaceans, dwarf and pygmy sperm whales (Kogia) are the only members of the family Kogiidae, regarded as diminutive and elusive relatives of the great sperm whale Physeter. Kogiids are known as fossils by several skulls, teeth, and ear bones from Neogene deposits of the Northern Hemisphere and Peru. We report on a fossil kogiid specimen collected at Sant’Andrea Bagni (northern Italy) from Zanclean marine mudstone; these deposits also yielded a rich deep-water elasmobranch assemblage depicting the presence of Atlantic-derived psychrospheric waters. The kogiid specimen, consisting of a partial cranium, one detached tooth, one vertebra, and one fragmentary rib, is here referred to Pliokogia apenninica gen. et sp. nov. Pliokogia is mostly characterised by a long and dorsally flattened rostrum and by the presence of two well-distinct fossae on the right side of the supracranial basin, including an elongated peripheral maxillary fossa on the posterior portion of the right maxilla. Our phylogenetic analysis recovers Pliokogia as a member of the subfamily Kogiinae, which includes Kogia, Koristocetus, Nanokogia, and Praekogia. A low temporal fossa and the absence of dental enamel suggest that, like extant Kogia, Pliokogia was a suction feeder. Since living kogiids do not inhabit the Mediterranean waters, and considering that they feed on deep-water prey in open-sea areas, the association of Pliokogia with a psychrospheric elasmobranch assemblage with Atlantic affinities is noteworthy. Indeed, in early Pliocene times, the Gibraltar connection was controlled by estuarine dynamics, thus allowing the entrance of deep-water organisms (including the putative prey of Pliokogia) in the Mediterranean Basin. The subsequent abandonment of the Mediterranean Sea by kogiids might therefore be related to the definitive establishment of the present-day antiestuarine circulation at Gibraltar, which likely led to a limited deep nutrient supply and resulted in the strong depletion of most Mediterranean deep-water ecosystems. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sperm whale ARPI - Archivio della Ricerca dell'Università di Pisa Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 64 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ARPI - Archivio della Ricerca dell'Università di Pisa |
op_collection_id |
ftunivpisairis |
language |
English |
topic |
Mammalia Cetacea Odontoceti Physeteroidea Kogiinae oceanisation Pliocene Northern Apennines |
spellingShingle |
Mammalia Cetacea Odontoceti Physeteroidea Kogiinae oceanisation Pliocene Northern Apennines ALBERTO COLLARETA FRANCO CIGALA FULGOSI GIOVANNI BIANUCCI A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea |
topic_facet |
Mammalia Cetacea Odontoceti Physeteroidea Kogiinae oceanisation Pliocene Northern Apennines |
description |
Among living cetaceans, dwarf and pygmy sperm whales (Kogia) are the only members of the family Kogiidae, regarded as diminutive and elusive relatives of the great sperm whale Physeter. Kogiids are known as fossils by several skulls, teeth, and ear bones from Neogene deposits of the Northern Hemisphere and Peru. We report on a fossil kogiid specimen collected at Sant’Andrea Bagni (northern Italy) from Zanclean marine mudstone; these deposits also yielded a rich deep-water elasmobranch assemblage depicting the presence of Atlantic-derived psychrospheric waters. The kogiid specimen, consisting of a partial cranium, one detached tooth, one vertebra, and one fragmentary rib, is here referred to Pliokogia apenninica gen. et sp. nov. Pliokogia is mostly characterised by a long and dorsally flattened rostrum and by the presence of two well-distinct fossae on the right side of the supracranial basin, including an elongated peripheral maxillary fossa on the posterior portion of the right maxilla. Our phylogenetic analysis recovers Pliokogia as a member of the subfamily Kogiinae, which includes Kogia, Koristocetus, Nanokogia, and Praekogia. A low temporal fossa and the absence of dental enamel suggest that, like extant Kogia, Pliokogia was a suction feeder. Since living kogiids do not inhabit the Mediterranean waters, and considering that they feed on deep-water prey in open-sea areas, the association of Pliokogia with a psychrospheric elasmobranch assemblage with Atlantic affinities is noteworthy. Indeed, in early Pliocene times, the Gibraltar connection was controlled by estuarine dynamics, thus allowing the entrance of deep-water organisms (including the putative prey of Pliokogia) in the Mediterranean Basin. The subsequent abandonment of the Mediterranean Sea by kogiids might therefore be related to the definitive establishment of the present-day antiestuarine circulation at Gibraltar, which likely led to a limited deep nutrient supply and resulted in the strong depletion of most Mediterranean deep-water ecosystems. |
author2 |
Collareta, Alberto CIGALA FULGOSI, Franco Bianucci, Giovanni |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
ALBERTO COLLARETA FRANCO CIGALA FULGOSI GIOVANNI BIANUCCI |
author_facet |
ALBERTO COLLARETA FRANCO CIGALA FULGOSI GIOVANNI BIANUCCI |
author_sort |
ALBERTO COLLARETA |
title |
A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea |
title_short |
A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea |
title_full |
A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea |
title_fullStr |
A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea |
title_full_unstemmed |
A new kogiid sperm whale from northern Italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early Pliocene Mediterranean Sea |
title_sort |
new kogiid sperm whale from northern italy supports psychrospheric conditions in the early pliocene mediterranean sea |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11568/1000367 https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00578.2018 https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app005782018.html |
genre |
Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Sperm whale |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000486595900011 volume:64 issue:3 firstpage:609 lastpage:626 numberofpages:18 journal:ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA http://hdl.handle.net/11568/1000367 doi:10.4202/app.00578.2018 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-85072298803 https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app005782018.html |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00578.2018 |
container_title |
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica |
container_volume |
64 |
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1796932376768544768 |