An unfamiliar physeteroid periotic (Cetacea: Odontoceti) from the German middle–late Miocene North Sea basin at Groß Pampau

Abstract. The Miocene mica clay locality of Groß Pampau, known for numerous and partly spectacular finds of marine mammals is becoming more and more a prominent site that bears the potential to resolve questions regarding taphonomic relationships and to interpret life communities of the ancient North Sea because of its rich faunal assemblage including invertebrates and other remains of various vertebrate organisms. In the present work we describe a right periotic of Physeteroidea with morphological characters so far unknown from other sperm whales. The periotics of the middle Miocene Aulophyseter morricei demonstrate the closest resemblance to the Groß Pampau specimen in their overall appearance and in the general arrangement and proportions of single structures, particularly of the anterior process and pars cochlearis. A great similarity is also documented with periotics of the living sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, especially regarding the shape and disposition of the anterior process and the bony element located dorsally to the accessory ossicle. Kogiid periotics differ strongly from that of the Groß Pampau specimen by having an inflated and short anterior process and, typically, three well-defined spines on it. A new taxonomic naming of the Groß Pampau periotic is not appropriate at this stage, although it might demonstrate the existence of a so-far undescribed physeteroid species. Additionally, its systematic position remains yet unclear and it is unknown at this point if it could belong to Hoplocetus ritzi, another physeterid, whose fragments were discovered in the same locality, or to another, already-described taxon, of which the periotic is still unknown.

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Sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, stranding on the Pakistani coast

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s0025315407054793 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 87 (1) ◽

pp. 363-364 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

M.A. Gore ◽

E. Ahmad ◽

Q.M. Ali ◽

R.M. Culloch ◽

S. Hameed ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Marine Mammals ◽

Action Plan ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Conservation Strategy ◽

Physeter Macrocephalus ◽

Sperm Whales

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) occur frequently in stranding records worldwide. However, none have been reported along the Pakistani coastline to date. This paper documents the first reported stranding of a sperm whale on the Pakistani coast. Ultimately, this finding is important in the planning of Pakistan's Biodiversity Action Plan and its National Conservation Strategy for marine mammals.

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Cetacean strandings along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua from 2014 to 2021

Marine Biodiversity Records ◽

10.1186/s41200-021-00209-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Joëlle De Weerdt ◽

Eric Angel Ramos ◽

Etienne Pouplard ◽

Marc Kochzius ◽

Phillip Clapham

Keyword(s):

Marine Mammals ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Distribution Patterns ◽

Sperm Whales ◽

The Pacific ◽

Toothed Whale ◽

Beaked Whales ◽

Causes Of Mortality ◽

Cuvier’S Beaked Whale ◽

Stenella Attenuata

AbstractDocumenting marine mammal strandings provides important information needed to understand the occurrence and distribution patterns of species. Here, we report on strandings of cetaceans on the Pacific (n = 11) and Caribbean (n = 2) coasts of Nicaragua, documented opportunistically from 2014 to 2021. Strandings included three species of baleen whale (blue whale Balaenoptera musculus, Bryde’s whale Balaenoptera edeni, humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae) and five species of toothed whale (dwarf sperm whale Kogia sima, Guiana dolphin Sotalia guianensis, pantropical spotted dolphin Stenella attenuata, spinner dolphin Stenella longirostris, Cuvier’s beaked whale Ziphius cavirostris). These are the first published accounts of blue whales, Bryde’s whales, dwarf sperm whales, and Cuvier’s beaked whales in Nicaraguan waters. Limited resources and the advanced decomposition of animals prevented necropsies in most cases, the identification of the causes of mortality in all cases, and the species identification of two dolphins. Information derived from these stranding events offers new insights into the occurrence of marine mammals on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Central America.

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New sperm whale remains from the late Miocene of the North Sea and a revised family attribution for the small crown physeteroid Thalassocetus Abel, 1905

Comptes Rendus Palevol ◽

10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a39 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Apolline ALFSEN ◽

Mark BOSSELAERS ◽

Olivier LAMBERT

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Late Miocene ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Close Relative ◽

Sperm Whales ◽

The North ◽

The Family ◽

The North Sea ◽

Early Radiation ◽

The One

In spite of a continuously expanding physeteroid fossil record, our understanding of the origin and early radiation of the two modern sperm whale families Kogiidae Gill, 1871 (including the pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, Kogia spp.) and Physeteridae Gray, 1821 (including the great sperm whale, Physeter Linnaeus, 1758) remains limited, especially due to the poorly resolved phylogenetic relationships of a number of extinct species. Among those, based on fragmentary cranial material from the late early to middle Miocene of Antwerp (Belgium, North Sea basin), the small-sized Thalassocetus antwerpiensis Abel, 1905 has been recognized for some time as the earliest branching kogiid. The discovery of a new diminutive physeteroid cranium from the late Miocene (Tortonian) of Antwerp leads to the description and comparison of a close relative of T. antwerpiensis. Thanks to the relatively young ontogenetic stage of this new specimen, the highly modified plate-like bones making the floor of its supracranial basin could be individually removed, a fact that greatly helped deciphering their identity and geometry. Close morphological similarities with T. antwerpiensis allow for the reassessment of several facial structures in the latter; the most important reinterpretation is the one of a crest-like structure, previously identified as a sagittal facial crest, typical for kogiids, and here revised as the left posterolateral wall of the supracranial basin, comprised of the left nasal (lost in kogiids for which the postnarial region is known) and the left maxilla. Implemented in a phylogenetic analysis, the new anatomical interpretations result in the new Belgian specimen and T. antwerpiensis being recovered as sister-groups in the family Physeteridae. Consequently, the geologically oldest kogiids are now dated from the Tortonian, further extending the ghost lineage separating these early late Miocene kogiid records from the estimated latest Oligocene to earliest Miocene divergence of kogiids and physeterids.

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Beached bachelors: An extensive study on the largest recorded sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event in the North Sea

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0201221 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. e0201221 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lonneke L. IJsseldijk ◽

Abbo van Neer ◽

Rob Deaville ◽

Lineke Begeman ◽

Marco van de Bildt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Extensive Study ◽

Physeter Macrocephalus ◽

Mortality Event ◽

The North ◽

The North Sea

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Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.1895 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. e1895 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Olga Panagiotopoulou ◽

Panagiotis Spyridis ◽

Hyab Mehari Abraha ◽

David R. Carrier ◽

Todd C. Pataky

Keyword(s):

Connective Tissue ◽

Structural Engineering ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Physeter Macrocephalus ◽

Sperm Whales ◽

Moby Dick ◽

Unique Structure ◽

Complex Structural ◽

Von Mises ◽

Von Mises Stresses

Herman Melville’s novelMoby Dickwas inspired by historical instances in which large sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus L.) sank 19th century whaling ships by ramming them with their foreheads. The immense forehead of sperm whales is possibly the largest, and one of the strangest, anatomical structures in the animal kingdom. It contains two large oil-filled compartments, known as the “spermaceti organ” and “junk,” that constitute up to one-quarter of body mass and extend one-third of the total length of the whale. Recognized as playing an important role in echolocation, previous studies have also attributed the complex structural configuration of the spermaceti organ and junk to acoustic sexual selection, acoustic prey debilitation, buoyancy control, and aggressive ramming. Of these additional suggested functions, ramming remains the most controversial, and the potential mechanical roles of the structural components of the spermaceti organ and junk in ramming remain untested. Here we explore the aggressive ramming hypothesis using a novel combination of structural engineering principles and probabilistic simulation to determine if the unique structure of the junk significantly reduces stress in the skull during quasi-static impact. Our analyses indicate that the connective tissue partitions in the junk reduce von Mises stresses across the skull and that the load-redistribution functionality of the former is insensitive to moderate variation in tissue material parameters, the thickness of the partitions, and variations in the location and angle of the applied load. Absence of the connective tissue partitions increases skull stresses, particularly in the rostral aspect of the upper jaw, further hinting of the important role the architecture of the junk may play in ramming events. Our study also found that impact loads on the spermaceti organ generate lower skull stresses than an impact on the junk. Nevertheless, whilst an impact on the spermaceti organ would reduce skull stresses, it would also cause high compressive stresses on the anterior aspect of the organ and the connective tissue case, possibly making these structures more prone to failure. This outcome, coupled with the facts that the spermaceti organ houses sensitive and essential sonar producing structures and the rostral portion of junk, rather than the spermaceti organ, is frequently a site of significant scarring in mature males suggest that whales avoid impact with the spermaceti organ. Although the unique structure of the junk certainly serves multiple functions, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the structure also evolved to function as a massive battering ram during male-male competition.

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Are solar activity and sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus strandings around the North Sea related?

Journal of Sea Research ◽

10.1016/j.seares.2004.07.006 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 53 (4) ◽

pp. 319-327 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Klaus Heinrich Vanselow ◽

Klaus Ricklefs

Keyword(s):

Solar Activity ◽

North Sea ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Physeter Macrocephalus ◽

The North ◽

The North Sea

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Socially segregated, sympatric sperm whale clans in the Atlantic Ocean

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.160061 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 160061 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Shane Gero ◽

Anne Bøttcher ◽

Hal Whitehead ◽

Peter Teglberg Madsen

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Mantel Test ◽

Good Evidence ◽

Physeter Macrocephalus ◽

Sperm Whales ◽

Sympatric Populations ◽

The Pacific ◽

Matrix Correlation ◽

Social Units

Sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) are unusual in that there is good evidence for sympatric populations with distinct culturally determined behaviour, including potential acoustic markers of the population division. In the Pacific, socially segregated, vocal clans with distinct dialects coexist; by contrast, geographical variation in vocal repertoire in the Atlantic has been attributed to drift. We examine networks of acoustic repertoire similarity and social interactions for 11 social units in the Eastern Caribbean. We find the presence of two socially segregated, sympatric vocal clans whose dialects differ significantly both in terms of categorical coda types produced by each clan (Mantel test between clans: matrix correlation = 0.256; p ≤ 0.001) and when using classification-free similarity which ignores defined types (Mantel test between clans: matrix correlation = 0.180; p ≤ 0.001). The more common of the two clans makes a characteristic 1 + 1 + 3 coda, while the other less often sighted clan makes predominantly regular codas. Units were only observed associating with other units within their vocal clan. This study demonstrates that sympatric vocal clans do exist in the Atlantic, that they define a higher order level of social organization as they do in the Pacific, and suggests that cultural identity at the clan level is probably important in this species worldwide.

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Calves as social hubs: dynamics of the social network within sperm whale units

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2013.1113 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 280 (1763) ◽

pp. 20131113 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Shane Gero ◽

Jonathan Gordon ◽

Hal Whitehead

Keyword(s):

Social Relationships ◽

Social Role ◽

Group Formation ◽

Time Lag ◽

Group Living ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Physeter Macrocephalus ◽

Sperm Whales ◽

Social Unit ◽

The Social

It is hypothesized that the primary function of permanent social relationships among female sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is to provide allomothers for calves at the surface while mothers make foraging dives. In order to investigate how reciprocity of allocare within units of sperm whales facilitates group living, we constructed weighted social networks based on yearly matrices of associations (2005–2010) and correlated them across years, through changes in age and social role, to study changes in social relationships within seven sperm whale units. Pairs of association matrices from sequential years showed a greater positive correlation than expected by chance, but as the time lag increased, the correlation coefficients decreased. Over all units considered, calves had high values for all measured network statistics, while mothers had intermediate values for most of the measures, but high values for connectedness and affinity. Mothers showed sharp drops in strength and connectedness in the first year of their new calves' lives. These broad patterns appear to be consistent across units. Calves appeared to be significant nodes in the network of the social unit, and thus provide quantitative support for the theory in which communal care acts as the evolutionary force behind group formation in this species.

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DNA preserved in jetsam whale ambergris

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2019.0819 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 20190819 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ruairidh Macleod ◽

Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding ◽

Morten Tange Olsen ◽

Matthew J. Collins ◽

Steven J. Rowland

Keyword(s):

Natural Product ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Reference Data ◽

Nuclear Genome ◽

Indirect Evidence ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Physeter Macrocephalus ◽

Sperm Whales ◽

Ecological Mechanisms

Jetsam ambergris, found on beaches worldwide, has always been assumed to originate as a natural product of sperm whales (Physeteroidea). However, only indirect evidence has ever been produced for this, such as the presence of whale prey remains in ambergris. Here, we extracted and analysed DNA sequences from jetsam ambergris from beaches in New Zealand and Sri Lanka, and sequences from ambergris of a sperm whale beached in The Netherlands. The lipid-rich composition of ambergris facilitated high preservation-quality of endogenous DNA, upon which we performed shotgun Illumina sequencing. Alignment of mitochondrial and nuclear genome sequences with open-access reference data for multiple whale species confirms that all three jetsam samples derived originally from sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ). Shotgun sequencing here also provides implications for metagenomic insights into ambergris-preserved DNA. These results demonstrate significant implications for elucidating the origins of jetsam ambergris as a prized natural product, and also for the understanding of sperm whale metabolism and diet, and the ecological mechanisms underlying these coproliths.

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