Balaenula

Balaenula
Temporal range: Pliocene
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Balaenula balaenopsis skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Mysticeti
Family: Balaenidae
Genus: Balaenula
Van Beneden, 1872

Balaenula is an extinct genus of cetacean .

Taxonomy

Cladistic analyses of fossils and extant balaenids place Balaenula as the sister taxon of right whales in a clade separate from Bowhead Whale.[1][2]

Fossil records

This genus is known in the fossil records from the Neogene to the Quaternary (age range: from 11.608 to 1.806 million years ago). Fossils are found in the marine strata of Italy, United Kingdom, ), United States, the Netherlands, France and Japan.[1][3][4]

Species

Fossil skull and mandibles of Balaenula astensis from Portacomaro (Asti)

There are two currently recognized species of Balaenula: [4]

Balaenula astensis was quite similar to the living right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) but much smaller, reaching a length of about 5 metres (16 ft). This ancient mysticete lived about four million years ago. Fossils have been found near Asti (Northern Italy), in a Zanclean/Piacenzian marine sandstone. [4]

An unnamed species from Japan (represented by a partial skeleton) is also known.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 M. Bisconti. 2003. Evolutionary history of Balaenidae. Craniium 20(1):9-50
  2. ↑ Churchill, M., Berta, A. and Deméré, T. (2012), The systematics of right whales (Mysticeti: Balaenidae). Marine Mammal Science, 28: 497–521. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00504.x
  3. ↑ Marx, F. G. (2010). "The More the Merrier? A Large Cladistic Analysis of Mysticetes, and Comments on the Transition from Teeth to Baleen". Journal of Mammalian Evolution 18 (2): 77–10. doi:10.1007/s10914-010-9148-4.
  4. 1 2 3 Paleobiology Database
  5. ↑ P. J. Van Beneden. 1872. Les Baleines fossiles d'Anvers. Bulletins de L'Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-arts 34:6-23
  6. ↑ L. Trevisan. 1942. Una nuova specie de Balaenula pliocenica. Palaeontogrphia Italica 40:1-13
  7. ↑ M. Oishi and Y. Hasegawa. 1995. A list of fossil cetaceans in Japan. The Island Arc 3:493-505
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