A new beaked whale (Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the Late Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina

ABSTRACT

A new genus and species of Ziphiidae, Notoziphius bruneti, gen. et sp. nov., from the late Miocene of Patagonia, is described on the basis of a well-preserved skull and partial left and right dentaries. It can be diagnosed by large, triangular, and markedly asymmetric nasals that strongly point anteroventrally, the ascending process of the maxilla not expanded posteriorly, supraoccipital strongly sloped posteroventrally; elliptical fossa on the nasal process of the premaxilla, small and anterolaterally directed premaxillary crest, and the presence of well-defined alveoli in the maxilla. A phylogenetic analysis including 25 ziphiid genera and 31 characters shows Notoziphius as nested within Ziphiidae in a basal clade with Aporotus, Beneziphius, Messapicetus, and Ziphirostrum. This clade is diagnosed by medial fusion of the premaxillae that closes the mesorostral groove, lateral margin of prenarial basin formed by a thick strip of maxilla, premaxillary crest anterolaterally directed, and reduced contact between nasal and premaxillary crest. The presence of Notoziphius in the Miocene of Patagonia increases our knowledge of ziphiid diversity in South America. Notoziphius bruneti and other Miocene records of ziphiids reinforce the idea that during the Miocene ziphiids were widely distributed and diverse.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank R. Brunet(†) who found and collected the holotype specimen. We also express our sincere thanks to E. R. Gomez and P. Puerta (MPEF) for allowing access to and preparation of the specimen. We are particularly grateful to M. S. Fernández (Museo de La Plata) for constructive suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript. We wish to thank R. W. Boessenecker (University of Otago) for help with the English version of the manuscript. We thank to E. Crespo and N. Garcia (Centro Nacional Patagónico), A. V. Helden (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), and C. W. Potter and N. D. Pyenson (National Museum of Natural History) for providing access for M. R. Buono to examine specimens in their care and for assistance during her visits. We would like to thank P. Best (Iziko South African Museum) and G. Hofmeyr (Port Elizabeth Museum) for photographs of an Indopacetus specimen (PEMN 1960). We thank J. Briguglio (Centro Nacional Patagónico) for taking photographs of the holotype of Notoziphius and P. Motta for drawing of the figures. M. R. Marin (Centro Nacional Patagónico) and G. Massaferro (Centro Nacional Patagónico) are thanked for the drawing of Figure 1. M. T. Dozo (Centro Nacional Patagónico) is thanked for her assistance during this study. The authors are grateful to the reviewers (G. Bianucci and N. D. Pyenson) and editor (J. H. Geisler); their suggestions greatly improved the quality of this article. This contribution used TNT version 1.1, a program made freely available thanks to a subsidy by the Willi Hennig Society. This research has been supported by the following grants to M.R.B.: Cetacean Society International (CSI), American Museum of Natural History (Lerner Gray Fund for Marine Research), Society for Marine Mammalogy (Grant In Aid of Research), and Smithsonian Institution (Remington Kellogg Fund).

Handling editor: Jonathan Geisler.