[Paleo-Cetology / Behaviour • 2015]
No Deep Diving: Evidence of Predation on Epipelagic Fish for A Stem Beaked Whale Messapicetus gregarius from the Late Miocene of Peru
Life reconstruction of three individuals of the extinct beaked whale Messapicetus gregarius preying upon a school of aged sardines Sardinops
sp. (average body length 38.8 cm) in the upper part of the water column
along the coast of nowadays Peru. The front individual is an adult
male, whereas the last in the background is a female.
Illustration by A. Gennari. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1530
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Abstract
Although modern beaked whales (Ziphiidae) are known to be highly
specialized toothed whales that predominantly feed at great depths upon
benthic and benthopelagic prey, only limited palaeontological data
document this major ecological shift. We report on a ziphiid–fish
assemblage from the Late Miocene of Peru that we interpret as the first
direct evidence of a predator–prey relationship between a ziphiid and
epipelagic fish.
Preserved in a dolomite concretion, a skeleton of the
stem ziphiid Messapicetus gregarius was discovered together with numerous skeletons of a clupeiform fish closely related to the epipelagic extant Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax).
Based on the position of fish individuals along the head and chest
regions of the ziphiid, the lack of digestion marks on fish remains and
the homogeneous size of individuals, we propose that this assemblage
results from the death of the whale (possibly via toxin poisoning)
shortly after the capture of prey from a single school. Together with
morphological data and the frequent discovery of fossil crown ziphiids
in deep-sea deposits, this exceptional record supports the hypothesis
that only more derived ziphiids were regular deep divers and that the
extinction of epipelagic forms may coincide with the radiation of true
dolphins.
KEYWORDS: feeding, fossil, Odontoceti, pacific sardine, Sardinops, Ziphiidae
Olivier Lambert, Alberto Collareta, Walter Landini, Klaas Post, Benjamin
Ramassamy, Claudio Di Celma, Mario Urbina and Giovanni Bianucci. 2015.
No Deep Diving: Evidence of Predation on Epipelagic Fish for A Stem
Beaked Whale from the Late Miocene of Peru. Proc. R. Soc. B. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1530
Fossilised Meal Illustrates Habitat Shift of Beaked Whales
Ancient whale fossilized with its last meal http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/09/ancient-whale-fossilized-its-last-meal
Palaeontology. 53(5); 1077–1098. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00995.x
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