Eobalaenopterais an extinct genus ofbaleen whalebelonging toBalaenopteroidea.
| Eobalaenoptera Temporal range: middleMiocene
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| Skeleton, Caroline County, Virginia | |
Scientific classification
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Genus: | †Eobalaenoptera Dooley, Fraser & Luo, 2004 |
| Species: | †E. harrisoni
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| Binomial name | |
| †Eobalaenoptera harrisoni Dooley, Fraser & Luo, 2004
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Discovery and significance
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Eobalaenopterawas first described in June 2004 by researchers at theVirginia Museum of Natural Historyfrom a partial skeleton found in 1990 inCaroline County, Virginia,the site of a prehistoric ocean, in the middleMioceneCalvert Formation.The 11 m (36 ft) skeleton proved to have similar morphological characteristics to acladeofwhalesconsisting of two moderntaxonomicfamilies—Balaenopteridae(therorquals) andEschrichtiidae(a family with one surviving species, thegray whale).
The age of the Calvert Formation (14 million years) makesEobalaenopterathe oldest-known member of Balaenopteroidea by three to five million years. It also considerably narrowed the gap between the earliest-knownfossilrecord and estimated time of divergence of this clade from other baleen whales. Molecular clocks have put this divergence for balaenopteroids from other crown mysticetes by 15–20 million years.[1][2]
In their review of extant and fossil rorquals, Demere et al. (2005) questioned the balaenopteroid placement ofEobalaenoptera,noting that the holotype lack substantial cranial material that could reinforce its original classification, preferring to treat the genus as Chaeomysticetiincertae sedis.[3]
Etymology
editThe genus nameEobalaenopterareflects the similarities between this skeleton and species in the genusBalaenopterasuch as theminke whale;eo-is a prefix meaning dawn. The species is named after Carter Harrison, a volunteer worker at the museum.
References
edit- ^Cassens, I., S. Vicario, V. G. Waddell, H. Balchowsky, D. Van Belle, W. Ding, C. Fan, R. S. Lal Mohan, P. C. Simões-Lopes, R. Bastida, A. Meyer, M. J. Stanhope and M. C. Milinkovitch. 2000. Independent adaptation to riverine habitats allowed survival of ancient cetacean lineages. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 97:11343–11347.
- ^Nikaido, M., F. Matsuno, H. Hamilton, R. L. Brownell, Jr., Y. Cao, W. Ding, Z. Zuoyan, A. M. Shedlock, R. E. Fordyce, M. Hasegawa and N. Okada. 2001. Retroposon analysis of major cetacean lineages: the monophyly of toothed whales and the paraphyly of river dolphins. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 98: 7384–7389.
- ^T. A. Demere, A. Berta and M. R. McGowen. 2005. The taxonomic and evolutionary history of modern balaenopteroid mysticetes. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 12(1/2):99-143.
- Dooley, Alton C.; Fraser, Nicholas C.; Luo, Zhe-Xi (2004)."The earliest known member of the rorqual—gray whale clade (Mammalia, Cetacea)".Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.24(2):453–463.Bibcode:2004JVPal..24..453D.doi:10.1671/2401.S2CID84970052.
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