Title
Did the giant extinct shark Carcharocles megalodon target small prey? Bite marks on marine mammal remains from the late Miocene of Peru
Date Issued
01 March 2017
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Collareta A.
Lambert O.
Landini W.
Di Celma C.
Malinverno E.
Bianucci G.
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
We report on bite marks incising fossil mammal bones collected from upper Miocene deposits of the Pisco Formation exposed at Aguada de Lomas (southern Peru) and attributed to the giant megatooth shark Carcharocles megalodon. The bitten material includes skull remains referred to small-sized baleen whales as well as fragmentary cetacean and pinniped postcrania. These occurrences, the first in their kind from the Southern Hemisphere, significantly expand the still scarce record of bite marks for C. megalodon; moreover, for the first time a prey (or scavenging item) of C. megalodon is identified at the species level (as Piscobalaena nana, a diminutive member of the extinct mysticete family Cetotheriidae). Due to the fragmentary nature of the studied material, the exact origin of the detected marks (i.e., by scavenging or by active predation) cannot be ascertained. Nevertheless, relying on actualistic observations and size-based considerations, we propose that diminutive mysticetes (e.g., cetotheriids) were some of the target prey of adult C. megalodon, at least along the coast of present-day Peru. C. megalodon is thus here interpreted as an apex predator whose trophic spectrum was focused on relatively small-sized prey. Lastly, we propose a link between the recent collapse of various lineages of diminutive mysticetes (observed around 3 Ma) and the extinction of C. megalodon (occurring around the end of the Pliocene).
Start page
84
End page
91
Volume
469
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Paleontología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85011854136
Source
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
ISSN of the container
00310182
Sponsor(s)
Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca - 2012YJSBMK - MIUR
Università di Pisa -PRA_2015_0028 - UniPi
This research was supported by a grant of the Italian Ministero dell'Istruzione dell'Università e della Ricerca [PRIN Project 2012YJSBMK], by the University of Pisa [PRA_2015_0028], and by a National Geographic Society Committee for Research Exploration grant [9410–13] to G. Bianucci.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus