Balaenula
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| Balaenula balaenopsis skeleton | |
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| Genus: | Balaenula Van Beneden, 1872
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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
There are two currently recognized species of Balaenula: [4]
- †Balaenula balaenopsis Van Beneden, 1872 (Type)[5]
- †Balaenula astensis Trevisan, 1942 (from Italy)[6]
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
- ^ a b M. Bisconti. 2003. Evolutionary history of Balaenidae. Craniium 20(1):9-50
- ^ 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
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c Paleobiology Database
- ^ 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
- ^ L. Trevisan. 1942. Una nuova specie de Balaenula pliocenica. Palaeontogrphia Italica 40:1-13
- ^ M. Oishi and Y. Hasegawa. 1995. A list of fossil cetaceans in Japan. The Island Arc 3:493-505
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