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An Amphibious Whale from the Middle Eocene of Peru Reveals Early South Pacific Dispersal of Quadrupedal Cetaceans

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dc.contributor.author Lambert, Olivier
dc.contributor.author Bianucci, Giovanni
dc.contributor.author Salas-Gismondi, Rodolfo
dc.contributor.author Di Celma, Claudio
dc.contributor.author Steurbaut, Etienne
dc.contributor.author Urbina, Mario
dc.contributor.author de Muizon, Christian
dc.date.accessioned 2019-07-04T16:59:18Z
dc.date.available 2019-07-04T16:59:18Z
dc.date.issued 2019
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12866/6717
dc.description.abstract Cetaceans originated in south Asia more than 50 million years ago (mya), from a small quadrupedal artiodactyl ancestor [1-3]. Amphibious whales gradually dispersed westward along North Africa and arrived in North America before 41.2 mya [4]. However, fossil evidence on when, through which pathway, and under which locomotion abilities these early whales reached the New World is fragmentary and contentious [5-7]. Peregocetus pacificus gen. et sp. nov. is a new protocetid cetacean discovered in middle Eocene (42.6 mya) marine deposits of coastal Peru, which constitutes the first indisputable quadrupedal whale record from the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Hemisphere. Preserving the mandibles and most of the postcranial skeleton, this unique four-limbed whale bore caudal vertebrae with bifurcated and anteroposteriorly expanded transverse processes, like those of beavers and otters, suggesting a significant contribution of the tail during swimming. The fore- and hind-limb proportions roughly similar to geologically older quadrupedal whales from India and Pakistan, the pelvis being firmly attached to the sacrum, an insertion fossa for the round ligament on the femur, and the retention of small hooves with a flat anteroventral tip at fingers and toes indicate that Peregocetus was still capable of standing and even walking on land. This new record from the southeastern Pacific demonstrates that early quadrupedal whales crossed the South Atlantic and nearly attained a circum-equatorial distribution with a combination of terrestrial and aquatic locomotion abilities less than 10 million years after their origin and probably before a northward dispersal toward higher North American latitudes. en_US
dc.language.iso eng
dc.publisher Elsevier
dc.relation.ispartofseries CB
dc.rights info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.es
dc.subject Peru en_US
dc.subject biogeography en_US
dc.subject locomotion en_US
dc.subject New World en_US
dc.subject amphibious dispersal en_US
dc.subject Cetacea en_US
dc.subject middle Eocene en_US
dc.subject Protocetidae en_US
dc.subject quadrupedal en_US
dc.title An Amphibious Whale from the Middle Eocene of Peru Reveals Early South Pacific Dispersal of Quadrupedal Cetaceans en_US
dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.identifier.doi https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.050
dc.subject.ocde https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#3.01.04
dc.subject.ocde https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#1.06.03
dc.relation.issn 1879-0445


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