revision of “balaena” belgica reveals a new right whale species, the possible ancestry of the northern right whale, eubalaena glacialis, and the ages of divergence for the living right whale species

Clicks: 217
ID: 245904
2017
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #459 of 581 articles by views in pediatrics

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 581 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
In 1941, Abel established Balaena belgica based on a series of fused cervical vertebrae and citing other cranial fragments from the late Neogene of the Antwerp harbor (northern Belgium). Later, Plisnier-Ladame & Quinet (1969) added a neurocranium and other skeletal remains from the same area to this species. Recently, the neurocranium was re-assigned to the genus Eubalaena thanks to newer phylogenetic analyses. Here, a new description is provided of materials previously assigned to “Balaena” belgica together with taxonomic revisions. Our work suggests that the cervical complex originally designated as the type of “Balaena” belgica is too poorly preserved to be used as such and is assigned to Balaenidae gen. et sp. indet., thus making “Balaena” belgica a nomen dubium. In addition to the neurocranium, the other remains consist in a fragment of maxilla assigned to Balaenidae gen. et sp. indet. and in a humerus assigned to Eubalaena sp. Discovered in the Kruisschans Sands Member of the Lillo Formation (3.2–2.8 Ma, Piacenzian, Late Pliocene), the neurocranium is designated as the holotype of the new species Eubalaena ianitrix. Our phylogenetic analysis supports a sister-group relationship of Eubalaena ianitrix and Eubalaena glacialis, and helps constraining the ages of origin for balaenid clades. Ecological and phylogenetic data suggest that Eubalaena ianitrix may represent the direct ancestor of Eubalaena glacialis, the latter having evolved through phyletic transformation including body size increase during the temperature decline of the Late Pliocene.
Reference Key
bisconti2017peerjrevision Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors ;Michelangelo Bisconti;Olivier Lambert;Mark Bosselaers
Journal pediatrics
Year 2017
DOI
10.7717/peerj.3464
URL
https://peerj.com/articles/3464/
Keywords
phylogeny cetacea

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.