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      The petrosal and inner ear of Herpetocetus sp. (Mammalia: Cetacea) and their implications for the phylogeny and hearing of archaic mysticetes

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      Journal of Paleontology
      Cambridge University Press (CUP)

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          Abstract

          This paper describes the petrosal (periotic) and the inner ear of Herpetocetus sp., an archaic mysticete whale (Mysticeti, Mammalia) from the Yorktown Formation (Pliocene) of North Carolina, USA. Parsimony analysis of 28 petrosal characters of Herpetocetus sp. and 11 other cetacean taxa supports the monophyly of mysticetes and the division of odontocetes and mysticetes. The in-group taxa of this analysis are: Herpetocetus, Parietobalaena, Pelocetus, Balaenidae, Eschrichtius, and Balaenopteridae. Odontocetes and the archaeocete Zygorhiza were used as successive outgroups to root phylogenetic trees and to establish character polarities. Among the modern mysticetes, the Balaenopteridae (rorquals) and the Eschrichtiidae (gray whales) are more closely related to each other than either is to the Balaenidae (bowhead and right whales). Several Miocene “cetotheriid” mysticetes and balaenids share some resemblance in the petrosal, suggesting their affinities. Quantitative information of the inner ear of Herpetocetus sp. was obtained by serial sectioning and computer graphic reconstruction. Herpetocetus sp. is much less developed than odontocetes in the cochlear structures that are crucial for high frequency hearing. Some cochlear structures in this fossil mysticete resemble more closely the non-echolocating modern mysticetes than early fossil toothed whales, indicating a possible specialization in low frequency hearing. This suggests that the archaic mysticetes of the Miocene and Pliocene did not have high frequency hearing necessary for echolocation. Herpetocetus sp. is similar to modern mysticetes but different from odontocetes in the spherical shape of the vestibule.

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          Outgroup Analysis and Parsimony

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            Petrosals of Late Cretaceous marsupials from North America, and a cladistic analysis of the petrosal in therian mammals

            John Wible (1990)
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              Hind limbs of eocene basilosaurus: evidence of feet in whales.

              New specimens of middle Eocene Basilosaurus isis from Egypt include the first functional pelvic limb and foot bones known in Cetacea. These are important in corroborating the intermediate evolutionary position of archaeocetes between generalized Paleocene land mammals that used hind limbs in locomotion and Oligocene-to- Recent whales that lack functional pelvic limbs. The foot is paraxonic, consistent with derivation from mesonychid Condylarthra. Hind limbs of Basilosaurus are interpreted as copulatory guides.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                applab
                Journal of Paleontology
                J. Paleontol.
                Cambridge University Press (CUP)
                0022-3360
                1937-2337
                November 1996
                May 2016
                : 70
                : 06
                : 1045-1066
                Article
                10.1017/S0022336000038749
                eabb8c89-f5d1-4026-8c59-fa39c2300201
                © 1996
                History

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