Mesoplodon thomsoni Krefft

• Main Authors: Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy, Divljan, Anja
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2017
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Mammalia; Cetacea; Hyperoodontidae; Mesoplodon; Mesoplodon thomsoni; Mesoplodon bidens
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7555647; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03DD87C8FFFA73711B74FA26FAD6978A

Mesoplodon thomsoni Krefft in Scott, 1873 Mammalia, Recent and Extinct, 116. (preface dated 21 July 1873). Common name . Strap-toothed Beaked Whale. Current name . Mesoplodon layardii (J. Gray, 1865c), following Perrin (2009i). Holotype . Not determined. Possibly the same specimen as the holotype of Mesoplodon guentheri . Material. All of the following entries in the Palmer Register were originally entered in Palmer’s hand as “ Mesoplodon thomsoni ” , none of which are marked by Palmer as a type: PA.356, original entry by Palmer is Fairy Ck Wollongong, 25 vertebrae; and PA.357, Fairy Ck, portion of skull, but registration or collection dates are not provided for either and it is not clear if they are of the same individual; PA.358, from Little Bay, skeleton jaws restored; PA.359, fractured jaws of above; PA.363, no locality given, 2 pelvic bones and 3 hyoid bones; PA.364, no locality given, 3 portions of sternum. Mesoplodon thomsoni is also written on four of the six bones registered under PA.363 and PA. 364 in very old style writing. Type locality . Uncertain. Generally assumed to be Little Bay, Sydney (e.g., J. Ogilby 1892; Iredale & Troughton, 1934) but possibly also Fairy Ck Wollongong if the name was based on PA.356 and PA.357. Comments . There appears to be no published description of this taxon, which is usually cited as a manuscript name of Krefft. A search of Krefft’s archival documents might resolve current uncertainty surround the type material and type locality of this name. Ogilby (1892) has been cited as the author of the name but the overlooked compilation of Scott (1873) is the earliest published use of the name thomsoni that we have found but he did not provide a description. Scott (1873: 116) lists “ Mesoplodon Thomsoni Krefft MSS ” as a possible synonym of “Sowerby’s Ziphius Mesoplodon sowerbiensis de Blainville ” [= Mesoplodon bidens ]. He states: “ The skeleton in the Australian Museum, which, for the present is considered as a synonym, is that of an animal stranded at the latter end of ...