Title
A new marine mammal assemblage from central Chile reveals the Pliocene survival of true seals in South America
Date Issued
01 January 2022
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Benites-Palomino A.
Valenzuela-Toro A.M.
Figueroa-Bravo C.
Nielsen S.N.
Gutstein C.S.
Carrillo-Biceño J.D.
Museo de Historia Natural-Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
Publisher(s)
Taylor and Francis Ltd.
Abstract
The fossil record of marine mammals from the upper Pliocene of the western coast of South America is poorly known, hindering our knowledge about how and when marine mammal faunas attained their modern distribution in the area. Here, we describe a new marine mammal assemblage from the Horcón Formation (upper Pliocene), located in the Valparaíso Region of central Chile. The material reported comprises postcranial remains of an indeterminate seal (Phocidae), Delphinoidea vertebrae, and mysticete elements (still in the field). The Phocidae remains constitute the youngest pre-Pleistocene record of this family in South America, providing new information regarding the timing for the establishment of the modern diversity and distribution of pinnipeds in the Southern Hemisphere. Furthermore, the pinniped and cetacean remains reported indicate that the marine mammal assemblage from the upper Pliocene along central Chile was composed of a mixture of modern and extinct taxa.
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
Biología (teórica, matemática, térmica, criobiología, ritmo biológico), Biología evolutiva
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85122237645
Source
Historical Biology
ISSN of the container
08912963
Sponsor(s)
We would like to thank David Rubilar-Rogers and Sergio Soto-Acuña for their comments and suggestions, which improved preliminary versions of the manuscript; and Robert W. Boessenecker and Mario Cozzuol for their comments and revision of a previous version of this work. We extend our gratitude to editor Gareth Dyke and reviewers Morgan Churchill, Sulman Rahmat for their thorough and helpful review. The authors especially wish to thank Mauricio F. Landaeta, María Verónica Andrade, Marco Cisternas, Marcelo Stucchi, Manuel J. Laime, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, Mario Urbina, Gabriel Aguirre-Fernandez, Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra, Andrés Varas, Leroy Quiroz and Hernán Vergara for their generous and important counselling and collaboration. We thank Nicholas D. Pyenson (USNM), Paulo Simões-Lopes (UFSC), Loic Costeur (M. Basel) David Rubilar-Rogers (MNHN), John Ossosky (USNM), James Rule (M. Victoria) and Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi (MUSM) for access to collections and assistance. This work benefited from financial support through CONICYT-PCHA, Master Fellowship (Grant No. 2013–221320410), ANID PCHA/Becas Chile, Doctoral Fellowship (Grant No. 2016–72170286), and National Geographic Society Committee on Research Exploration Young Explorer Grant 9391–13 to A.V.T., and U-REDES (Domeyko II UR-C12/1, Universidad de Chile, PI: A. Vargas) to A.V.T., C.F.B and C.S.G. also received funds from Fondecyt Nº 3160710; ACT 172099 PIA-Conicyt and REDES 190190 (PI: A. Vargas). Permit to collecting Nº 4703/2010 was granted by the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales to J.C.B.
The fossil specimens described here come from coastal outcrops of the Horcón Formation, which are located 51 km north of the city of Valparaíso, between the villages Horcón (32° 42ʹ 35” S, 71° 29ʹ 12” W) and Maitencillo (32° 40ʹ 32” N, 71° 26ʹ 35” W), in the Valparaíso Region, central Chile ()). The mammal assemblage reported here is composed mainly of isolated and partly articulated postcranial elements that were surface collected directly from the outcrops by one of the authors (JDCB) and other collaborators during several expeditions between 2010 and 2011. The fieldwork was supported under the collecting permit Nº 4703/2010, granted by the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales of Chile. All the specimens are housed in the paleontological collection of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago, Chile ( SGO.PV ). Measurements of the odontocete vertebrae were taken following Buchholtz and Schur () and Fettuccia and Simões-Lopes () (see their , respectively, for complete description and schematic drawings). Nomenclature and determination of vertebrae position was performed comparing the measurements, proportions and morphology across the axis as described in Buchholtz (), Buchholtz and Schur (), Fettuccia and Simões-Lopes () and Viglino et al. (). The degree of fusion of the vertebral epiphyses was observed in order to determine the osteological age of the specimens (Lockyer et al. ).
We would like to thank David Rubilar-Rogers and Sergio Soto-Acuña for their comments and suggestions, which improved preliminary versions of the manuscript; and Robert W. Boessenecker and Mario Cozzuol for their comments and revision of a previous version of this work. We extend our gratitude to editor Gareth Dyke and reviewers Morgan Churchill, Sulman Rahmat for their thorough and helpful review. The authors especially wish to thank Mauricio F. Landaeta, María Verónica Andrade, Marco Cisternas, Marcelo Stucchi, Manuel J. Laime, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, Mario Urbina, Gabriel Aguirre-Fernandez, Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra, Andrés Varas, Leroy Quiroz and Hernán Vergara for their generous and important counselling and collaboration. We thank Nicholas D. Pyenson (USNM), Paulo Simões-Lopes (UFSC), Loic Costeur (M. Basel) David Rubilar-Rogers (MNHN), John Ossosky (USNM), James Rule (M. Victoria) and Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi (MUSM) for access to collections and assistance. This work benefited from financial support through CONICYT-PCHA, Master Fellowship (Grant No. 2013–221320410), ANID PCHA/Becas Chile, Doctoral Fellowship (Grant No. 2016–72170286), and National Geographic Society Committee on Research Exploration Young Explorer Grant 9391–13 to A.V.T., and U-REDES (Domeyko II UR-C12/1, Universidad de Chile, PI: A. Vargas) to A.V.T., C.F.B and C.S.G. also received funds from Fondecyt Nº 3160710; ACT 172099 PIA-Conicyt and REDES 190190 (PI: A. Vargas). Permit to collecting Nº 4703/2010 was granted by the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales to J.C.B.
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