Eschrichtiidae or the gray whales is a family of baleen whale (Parvorder Mysticeti) with a single extant species, the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), as well as four described fossil genera: Archaeschrichtius (Miocene), Glaucobalaena and Eschrichtioides (Pliocene) from Italy,[1][2] and Gricetoides from the Pliocene of North Carolina.[3] Some phylogenetic studies have found this family to be invalid, with its members nesting inside of the clade Balaenopteridae.[4][5] The names of the extant genus and the family honours Danish zoologist Daniel Eschricht.[6]
| Eschrichtiidae Temporal range:
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Parvorder: | Mysticeti |
| Family: | Eschrichtiidae Ellerman & Morrison-Scott 1951 |
| Genera | |
| Synonyms | |
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Taxonomy
editIn his morphological analysis, Bisconti 2008 found that eschrichtiids and Cetotheriidae (Cetotherium, Mixocetus and Metopocetus) form a monophyletic sister group of Balaenopteridae.[7]
A specimen from the Late Pliocene of Northern Italy, named "Cetotherium" gastaldii by Strobel 1875[8] and renamed "Balaenoptera" gastaldii by Portis 1885, was identified as a basal eschrichtiid by Bisconti 2008 who recombined it to Eschrichtioides gastaldii.[9][10]
Steeman et al. 2009 found that the gray whale is phylogenetically distinct from rorquals and that previous morphological studies were correct in the conclusion that the evolution of gulp feeding was a single event in the rorqual lineage.[11] In contrast, multiple later studies found the gray whale to fall within the family Balaenopteridae, being more derived than the minke whales but basal to all other members in the family, and reclassified it in Balaenopteridae; the American Society of Mammalogists has followed this classification.[4][5][12]
Evolution
editFossils of Eschrichtiidae have been found in all major oceanic basins in the Northern Hemisphere, and the family is believed το date back to the Late Miocene.[9] Today, gray whales are only present in the northern Pacific, but a population was also present in the northern Atlantic before being driven to extinction by European whalers three centuries ago.[13]
Fossil eschrichtiids from before the Holocene are rare compared to other fossil mysticetes. The only Pleistocene fossil from the Pacific referred to E. eschrichtius is a partial skeleton and an associated skull from California, estimated to be about 200 thousand years old. However, a late Pliocene fossil from Hokkaido, Japan, referred to Eschrichtius sp. is estimated to be 2.6 to 3.9 Mya and a similar unnamed fossil has been reported from California.[9]
In their description of Archaeschrichtius ruggieroi from the late Miocene of Italy, Bisconti & Varola 2006 argued that eschrichtiids most likely originated in the Mediterranean Basin about 10 million years ago and remained there, either permanently or intermittently, at least until the Early Pliocene (5–3 Mya),[14] (but see Messinian salinity crisis.)
References
editNotes
edit- ^ Bisconti 2008
- ^ Bisconti, Michelangelo; Damarco, Piero; Marengo, Lorenza; Macagno, Mattia; Daniello, Riccardo; Pavia, Marco; Carnevale, Giorgio (2024-09-05). "Anatomy and Relationships of a New Gray Whale from the Pliocene of Piedmont, Northwestern Italy". Diversity. 16 (9): 547. doi:10.3390/d16090547. ISSN 1424-2818.
- ^ Pyenson & Lindberg 2011
- ^ a b McGowen, Michael R; Tsagkogeorga, Georgia; Álvarez-Carretero, Sandra; dos Reis, Mario; Struebig, Monika; Deaville, Robert; Jepson, Paul D; Jarman, Simon; Polanowski, Andrea; Morin, Phillip A; Rossiter, Stephen J (2019-10-21). "Phylogenomic Resolution of the Cetacean Tree of Life Using Target Sequence Capture". Systematic Biology. 69 (3): 479–501. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syz068. ISSN 1063-5157. PMC 7164366. PMID 31633766.
- ^ a b "Explore the Database". www.mammaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2021-08-20.
- ^ Jones & Swartz 2008, p. 503
- ^ Bisconti 2008, Results, pp. 173–174
- ^ Strobel 1875, p. 136
- ^ a b c Pyenson & Lindberg 2011, Fossil record of gray whales
- ^ Deméré, Berta & McGowen 2005, pp. 119–120
- ^ Steeman et al. 2009, p. 580
- ^ Árnason, Úlfur; Lammers, Fritjof; Kumar, Vikas; Nilsson, Maria A.; Janke, Axel (2018). "Whole-genome sequencing of the blue whale and other rorquals finds signatures for introgressive gene flow". Science Advances. 4 (4): eaap9873. Bibcode:2018SciA....4.9873A. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aap9873. PMC 5884691. PMID 29632892.
- ^ Bisconti & Varola 2006, p. 450
- ^ Bisconti & Varola 2006, Implications for eschrichtiid fossil record and paleobiogeography, p. 454
Sources
edit- Anderson, J. (1746). Nachrichten von Island, Grönland und der Strasse Davis (in German). Hamburg: Verlegts Georg Christian Grund, Buckdr.
- Barnes, L. G.; McLeod, S. A. (1984). "The Fossil Record and Phyletic Relationships of Gray Whales". In Jones, M. L.; Swartz, S. L.; Leatherwood, S. (eds.). The Gray Whale: Eschrichtius Robustus. Academic Press. pp. 3–28. ISBN 9780080923727.
- Bisconti, M. (2008). "Morphology and phylogenetic relationships of a new eschrichtiid genus (Cetacea: Mysticeti) from the Early Pliocene of northern Italy". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 153: 161–186. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00374.x. OCLC 438026086.
- "M. Bisconti 2008". Fossilworks.
- Bisconti, M.; Varola, A. (2006). "The oldest eschrichtiid mysticete: and a new morphological diagnosis of Eschrichtiidae (gray whales)" (PDF). Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 112 (3): 447–457.
- "M. Bisconti and A. Varola 2006". Fossilworks.
- Brisson, M. J. (1762). Regnum animale in classes IX. distributum, sive, Synopsis methodica (in Latin and French). Lieden: Apud Theodorum Haak. OCLC 13184910.
- Bryant, P. J. (1995). "Dating Remains of Gray Whales from the Eastern North Atlantic". Journal of Mammalogy. 76 (3): 857–861. doi:10.2307/1382754. JSTOR 1382754.
- Deméré, T.A; Berta, A.; McGowen, M. R. (2005). "The taxonomic and evolutionary history of fossil and modern balaenopteroid mysticetes" (PDF). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 12 (1/2): 99–143. doi:10.1007/s10914-005-6944-3. S2CID 90231.
- Dudley, P. (1725). "An Essay upon the Natural History of Whales, with a particular Account of the Ambergris found in the Sperma Ceti Whale. In a Letter to the Publisher, from the Honourable Paul Dudley, Esq; F. R. S". Philosophical Transactions. 33 (387): 256–269. doi:10.1098/rstl.1724.0053. S2CID 186208376.
- Ellerman, J. R.; Morrison-Scott, T. C. S. (1951). Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian Mammals 1758 to 1946. British Museum (Natural History). pp. 1–810. OCLC 469669291.
- "J. R. Ellerman and T. C. S. Morrisson-Scott 1951". Fossilworks.
- Erxleben, J. C. P. (1777). Systema regni animalis per classes, ordines, genera, species, varietates, cum synonymia et historia animalium. Classis 1: Mammalia (in Latin). Leipzig: Weygandianis. OCLC 22224991. OL 23666710M.
- "Eschrichtius Gray 1864 (gray whale)". Fossilworks.
- Gray, J. E. (1864). "Notes on the Whalebone-Whales; with a Synopsis of the Species". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 3. 14 (83): 345–353. doi:10.1080/00222936408681724.
- Jones, M. L.; Swartz, S. L. (2008). "Gray whale". In Perrin, William F.; Würsig, Bernd; Thewissen, J. G. M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. pp. 503–511. ISBN 978-0-12-373553-9.
- Lilljeborg, W. (1861). Öfversigt af de inom Skandinavien (Sverige och Norrige) anträffade Hvalartade Däggdjur (Cetacea) (in Swedish). doi:10.5962/bhl.title.15843. OCLC 670223335.
- Portis, A. (1885). Catalogo descrittivo dei Talassoterii rinvenuti nei terreni terziarii del Piemonte e della Liguria (in Italian). Turin: Ermanno Loescher. OCLC 9527515.
- "A. Portis 1886". Fossilworks.
- Pyenson, N. D.; Lindberg, D. R. (2011). "What Happened to Gray Whales during the Pleistocene? The Ecological Impact of Sea-Level Change on Benthic Feeding Areas in the North Pacific Ocean". PLOS ONE. 6 (7): e21295. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...621295P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021295. PMC 3130736. PMID 21754984.
- Scammon, C. M. (1869). "On the cetaceans of the western coast of North America". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 21: 13–63. JSTOR 4060095.
- Scammon, C. M. (1874). "The California Gray Whale". The marine mammals of the north-western coast of North America. San Franc.: John H. Carmany and Co. pp. 20–33.
- Steeman, M. E.; Hebsgaard, M. B.; Fordyce, R. Ewan; Ho, S. Y. W.; Rabosky, D. L.; Nielsen, R.; Rahbek, C.; Glenner, H.; Sørensen, M. V.; Willerslev, E. (2009). "Radiation of Extant Cetaceans Driven by Restructuring of the Oceans". Systematic Biology. 58 (6): 573–585. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syp060. PMC 2777972. PMID 20525610.
- Strobel, P. (1875). "Notizie preliminari su le Balenoptere fossili subappennine del Museo parmense". Bollettino del R. Comitato Geologico d'Italia (in Italian). 5 (6): 131–140.
- "P. Strobel 1875". Fossilworks.
- Van Beneden, P. J.; Gervais, P. (1868). Ostéographie des cétacés vivants et fossiles, comprenant la description et l'iconographie du squelette et du système dentaire de ces animaux; ainsi que des documents relatifs à leur histoire naturelle. Paris: A. Bertrand. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.9521.
- "P. J. Van Beneden and P. Gervais 1868". Fossilworks.
- Weber, M. (1904). Die Säugetiere (in German). Jena: G. Fischer. OCLC 2662569.
- "M. Weber 1904". Fossilworks.
- Whitmore, F. C.; Kaltenbach, J. A. (2008). "Neogene Cetacea of the Lee Creek Phosphate Mine, North Carolina". Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication. 14: 181–269.
- "F. C. Whitmore and J. A. Kaltenbach 2008". Fossilworks.
External links
edit- Media related to Eschrichtiidae at Wikimedia Commons
- Data related to Eschrichtiidae at Wikispecies
