First records of extinct kentriodontid and squalodelphinid dolphins from the Upper Marine Molasse (Burdigalian age) of Switzerland and a reappraisal of the Swiss cetacean fauna

• Main Authors: Aguirre-Fernández, Gabriel, Jost, Jürg, Hilfiker, Sarah
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ, Ltd. 2022
• Subjects: Department of Paleontology; 560 Fossils & prehistoric life; General Agricultural and Biological Sciences; General Biochemistry; Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Medicine; General Neuroscience; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/218678/; https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/218678/1/peerj_13251.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-218678; https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13251

The Swiss Upper Marine Molasse (OMM) documents a transgression event dated to around 21 to 17 million years in which dolphin and other vertebrate remains have been reported. We revised the whole cetacean (whales and dolphins) OMM assemblage available in main collections, focusing on the identification and interpretation of periotics (bone that contains the inner ear). Periotics are rare, but they provide the richest taxonomic information in the sample and hint to environmental associations. Micro-computerized tomography allowed the reconstruction of bony labyrinths for comparisons and environmental interpretations. Three families are represented by periotics: Kentriodontidae, Squalodelphinidae and Physeteridae. The cetacean taxonomic composition of the Swiss OMM reinforces biogeographical patterns reported for the Mediterranean and Paratethys during the Burdigalian at a regional scale and the Calvert cetacean fauna of the northwest Atlantic at oceanic scale.