Family of mammals
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 three described fossil genera:
Archaeschrichtius
and
Eschrichtioides
from the
Miocene
and
Pliocene
of Italy respectively,
[1]
and
Gricetoides
from the Pliocene of North Carolina.
[2]
More recent phylogenetic studies have found this family to be invalid, with its members nesting inside the
Balaenopteridae
.
[3]
[4]
The names of the extant genus and the family honours Danish zoologist
Daniel Eschricht
.
[5]
Taxonomy
[
edit
]
In his morphological analysis,
Bisconti 2008
found that eschrichtiids and
Cetotheriidae
(
Cetotherium
,
Mixocetus
and
Metopocetus
) form a monophyletic sister group of
Balaenopteridae
.
[6]
A specimen from the
Late Pliocene
of northern Italy, named
"
Cetotherium
" gastaldii
by
Strobel 1875
[7]
and renamed
"Balaenoptera" gastaldii
by
Portis 1885
, was identified as a basal eschrichtiid by
Bisconti 2008
who recombined it to
Eschrichtioides gastaldii
.
[8]
[9]
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.
[10]
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.
[3]
[4]
[11]
Evolution
[
edit
]
Fossils of Eschrichtiidae have been found in all major oceanic basins in the Northern Hemisphere, and the family is believed date back to the
Late Miocene
.
[8]
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.
[12]
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.
[8]
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),
[13]
(but see
Messinian salinity crisis
.)
References
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Bisconti 2008
- ^
Pyenson & Lindberg 2011
- ^
a
b
McGowen, Michael R; Tsagkogeorga, Georgia; Alvarez-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
- ^
Demere, Berta & McGowen 2005
, pp. 119?120
- ^
Steeman et al. 2009
, p. 580
- ^
Arnason, Ulfur; 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, Gronland 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
.
- 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.
- 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
.
- Demere, 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
.
- 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
.
- 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.; Wursig, Bernd; Thewissen, J. G. M. (eds.).
Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals
. Academic Press. pp.
503
?511.
ISBN
978-0-12-373553-9
.
- Lilljeborg, W.
(1861).
Ofversigt af de inom Skandinavien (Sverige och Norrige) antraffade Hvalartade Daggdjur (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
.
- 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.
- Van Beneden, P. J.
;
Gervais, P.
(1868).
Osteographie des cetaces vivants et fossiles, comprenant la description et l'iconographie du squelette et du systeme dentaire de ces animaux; ainsi que des documents relatifs a leur histoire naturelle
. Paris: A. Bertrand.
doi
:
10.5962/bhl.title.9521
.
- Weber, M.
(1904).
Die Saugetiere
(in German). Jena: G. Fischer.
OCLC
2662569
.
- 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.
External links
[
edit
]