https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/395585
標題: | A new Early Oligocene toothed ‘baleen’ whale (Mysticeti: Aetiocetidae) from western North America: one of the oldest and the smallest | 作者: | Felix G. Marx CHENG-HSIU TSAI R. Ewan Fordyce |
關鍵字: | Aetiocetidae; Baleen; Baleen whale; Filter feeding; Mysticeti; Suction feeding | 公開日期: | 2015 | 出版社: | Royal Society Publishing | 卷: | 2 | 期: | 150476 | 來源出版物: | Royal Society Open Science | 摘要: | Archaic toothed mysticetes represent the evolutionary transition from raptorial to bulk filter feeding in baleen whales. Aetiocetids, in particular, preserve an intermediate morphological stage in which teeth functioned alongside a precursor of baleen, the hallmark of all modern mysticetes. To date, however, aetiocetids are almost exclusively Late Oligocene and coeval with both other toothed mysticetes and fully fledged filter feeders. By contrast, reports of cetaceans from the Early Oligocene remain rare, leaving the origins of aetiocetids, and thus of baleen, largely in the dark. Here, we report a new aetiocetid,Fucaia buelli, from the earliest Oligocene (ca33–31 Ma) of western North America. The new material narrows the temporal gap between aetiocetids and the oldest known mysticete,Llanocetus(ca34 Ma). The specimen preserves abundant morphological detail relating to the phylogenetically informative ear bones (otherwise poorly documented in this family), the hyoid apparatus and much of the (heterodont) dentition.Fucaiacomprises some of the smallest known mysticetes, comparable in size with the smallest odontocetes. Based on their phylogenetic relationships and dental and mandibular morphology, including tooth wear patterns, we propose that aetiocetids were suction-assisted raptorial feeders and interpret this strategy as a crucial, intermediary step, enabling the transition from raptorial to filter feeding. Following this line of argument, a combination of raptorial and suction feeding would have been ancestral to all toothed mysticetes, and possibly even baleen whales as a whole. |
URI: | http://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/395585 | ISSN: | 20545703 | DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.150476 |
顯示於: | 生命科學系 |
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