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rom pseudorca by having a proportionally larger dorsal fin 2 base lengths away from the blowhole vs 2 5 and by having a clearly demarcated cape peponocephala can be distinguished by having pointed flipper tips a pointed head when viewed from above and no white extending around the face baird 2010 i think this is the case in the above photo but i m not entirely certain photo by gary l friedrichsen from worms feresa is one of the most poorly known toothed whales mcsweeney et al 2009 and single sightings or strandings are still viewed as deserving publication baird 2010 prior to 1954 the species was known from only two skulls reeves et al 2002 making it extremely poorly known even compared to beaked whales what makes this absolutely shocking is that feresa is not a cryptic species they are known from the tropics and subtropics worldwide are easy to detect in visual surveys do not take extended dives and contra leatherwood et al 1982 do not avoid vessels mcsweeney et al 2009 while their surface behavior is normally subdued compared to other dolphins they have been observed jumping high above the surface and even riding on bow waves reeves et al 2002 it appears that while a deep water habitat and confusion with pseudorca and peponocephala can explain the lack of observations to a degree the main factor is probably the species being rare mcsweeney et al 2009 in 1965 a little over a decade after the external appearance of the animal became known feresa was held in captivity pryor 1991 remarked that one individual behaved more like a wolf than a normal dolphin would growl and snap like as canid and not hesitate to attack people and other cetaceans since when are cetaceans capable of growling this behavior has led some to presume that feresa preys on mammals in the wild leatherwood et al 1982 and aggression towards other dolphins has been observed whilst individuals were trapped in tuna seines reeves et al 2002 considering that both situations occurred in cramped and undoubtedly stressful environments i think it is completely unfounded to conclude that feresa is a pugnacious marine mammal killing macropredator with the available evidence stomach contents have included squid and fish rodríguez lópez and mignucci giannoni 1999 zerbini santos 1997 feresa skeleton from wikipedia commons the skeleton of feresa does appear superficially orca like however it is not a particularly close relative hence my strong dislike of the pygmy killer whale there is some disagreement as to how closely they are related slater et al 2010 places orcinus and orcaella as the most basal delphinids however vilstrup et al 2011 consider both to be both members of the clade globicephalinae but with orca as the most basal member and feresa as a derived member and close relative of peponocephala and globicephala this seems like a very interesting group and perhaps i ll give it some more coverage references baird r w 2010 pygmy killer whales feresa attenuata or false killer whales pseudorca crassidens identification of a group of small cetaceans seen off ecuador in 2003 aquatic mammals 36 3 326 327 available gray j e 1871 supplement to the catalogue of seals and whales in the british museum available leatherwood s reeves r r perrin w f evans w 1982 whales dolphins and porpoises of the eastern north pacific and adjacent arctic waters noaa technical report nmfa circular 444 washington dc u s department of commerce national oceanic and atmospheric administration national marine fisheries service partially available mcsweeney d j baird r w mahaffy s d webster d l and schorr g s 2009 site fidelity and association patterns of a rare species pygmy killer whales feresa attenuata in the main hawaiian island marine mammal science 25 3 557 572 available pryor k 1991 mortal remains studying dead animals in pryor k norris k s eds dolphin society discoveries and puzzles university of california press berkeley available reeves r r stewart b s clapham p j powell j a 2002 national audubon society guide to marine mammals of the world alfred a knopf new york rodríguez lópez m a mignucci giannoni a a 1999 a stranded pygmy killer whale feresa attenuata in puerto rico aquatic mammals 25 2 119 121 available rossi santos m baracho c neto e s marcovaldi e 2006 first sightings of the pygmy killer whale feresa attenuata for the brazilian coast jmba2 biodiversity records available slater g j price s a santini f and alfaro m e 2010 diversity versus disparity and the radiation of modern cetaceans proceedings of the royal society b 277 1697 3097 3104 available vilstrup j t ho s y w foote a d morin p a kreb d krützen m parra g j robertson k m de stephanis r verborgh p willerslev e orlando l gilbert m t p 2011 mitogenomic phylogenetic analyses of the delphinidae with an emphasis on the globicephalinae bmc evolutionary biology 11 65 available zerbini a n santos m c o 1997 first record of the pygmy killer whale feresa attenuata gray 1874 for the brazilian coast aquatic mammals 23 2 105 109 available posted by cameron mccormick at saturday december 17 2011 41 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday december 15 2011 eocetus eocetus and friends update january 28 2014 eocetus wardii is now basilotritus wardii more on my new post the third king i was shocked that uhen 2010 remarked that basilosaurus drazindai and basiloterus hussaini probably represent protocetids akin to eocetus this would place the whales outside pelagiceti and imply that the now questionable basilosaurids were potentially capable of walking on land despite being enormous unfortunately other mentions of this revised placement give no further details uhen 2008 uhen et al 2011 and uhen 2010 further states the placement is difficult to determine with certainty due to scarce materials i suspect the hypothesis will not be officially discussed until further material is found and or described which won t stop me from wildly speculating lumbar vertebrae in right lateral view from left to right eocetus wardii from uhen 1999 basiloterus hussaini and basilosaurus drazindai note that the latter most may be an anterior caudal from gingerich et al 1997 for comparison basilosaurus isis vertebrae in the description of basilosaurus drazindai gingerich et al 1997 note a number of primitive retentions which resemble the morphology of generalized archaeocetes long neural spine and arch broad almost horizontally placed anterior projecting metapophyses which project beyond the anterior edge of the vertebral centrum and paired posterolateral processes of the neural arch aside from the last trait which i can t confirm without a dorsal view all of these traits are present in eocetus uhen 1999 additionally eocetus has elongated transverse processes unlike the condition of basilosaurus uhen 1999 however b drazindai has processes with a 15 5 cm long base they broke off relative to the 30 cm centrum gingerich et al 1997 and so probably had a similar albeit slightly less extreme condition the only criterion for placing b drazindai in the genus basilosaurus was the size and shape of the centrum gingerich et al 1997 and while they are uncannily similar in shape everything else seems to be pointing towards a relationship with eocetus lumbar vertebrae in anterior view ditto order as for awkward middle child basiloterus it appears to have a centrum which is slightly more elongated than that of eocetus however the neural arch and maybe the neural spine appear to be narrower the metapophyses are upwardly angled gingerich et al 1997 less broad less anterior projecting but still appear to extend past the centrum the posterolateral processes are absent gingerich et al 1997 the base of the transverse process is 9 3 cm long relative to a 19 5 20 cm centra gingerich et al 1997 proportionally similar to basilosaurus drazindai the placement of basiloterus is thus not clear and perhaps it was a basilosaurid or an even more derived protocetid maiacetus inuus a basal protocetid uhen 2011 from wikipedia commons protocetidae is a blatantly paraphyletic family of extinct cetaceans from eocene coastal marine deposits with hip and femur morphology indicating amphibious capabilities most of the time and no evidence of flukes uhen 2010 uhen 1999 appears to think that eocetus wardii had weight bearing hips however uhen 2010 refers to them as moderately reduced and regarded the species as possibly non amphibious this is perhaps not surprising since eocetus eocetus and an unnamed pisco formation species are the sister group of pelagiceti uhen et al 2011 this could make them closer relatives of dorudon than maiacetus and raises the question of how many typical protocetid traits they actually exhibited perhaps they were entirely aquatic tail based swimmers which just happened to have fairly large vestigial legs dorudon atrox from wikipedia commons the scare quotes around eocetus hint at a taxonomic misadventure e wardii was assigned to its genus by uhen 1999 based on comparisons of its skull and vertebrae to eocetus schweinfurthi the problem is the holotype of e schweinfurthi is an isolated skull and it is not possible to determine whether the vertebrae referred to it actually represent the species geisler et al 2005 there is overlapping skull material uhen 1999 but geisler et al 2005 apparently regarded it as too incomplete to warrant unambiguous placement in the genus somehow eocetus and eocetus formed a clade in phylogenetic analyses geisler et al 2005 uhen et al 2011 making it probable that future discoveries will confirm their close relationship eocetus wardii is clearly related to unnamed pisco formation material which exhibits the same distinctive traits moderate centrum elongation elongated neural arches and spines and transverse processes strange pock marked texture with the only difference being that the unnamed material is 35 smaller uhen et al 2011 the egyptian vertebrae dubiously assigned to eocetus schweinfurthi figured in uhen 1999 also seem quite similar including the pock marks and if it is also a member of this clade it would indicate a sizable trans oceanic range this in turn could be taken as evidence of the whales being largely pelagic of course this is quite speculative there of course remains much to be known about these cetaceans and perhaps future discoveries will be enlightening as to how similar they were to the pelagic cetaceans as well as the origins of pelagiceti i really hope it turns out that a basilosaurus sized animal could walk on land references geisler j h sanders a e and luo z x 2005 a new protocetid whale cetacea archaeoceti from the late middle eocene of south carolina american museum novitates 3480 1 65 available gingerich p d arif m bhatti m a anwar m sanders w j 1997 basilosaurus drazindai and basiloterus hussaini new archaeoceti mammalia cetacea from the middle eocene drazinda formation with a revised interpretation of ages of whale bearing strata in the kirthar group of the sulaiman range punjab pakistan contributions from the museum of paleontology university of michigan 30 2 55 81 available uhen m d pyenson n d devries t j urbina m and renne p r 2011 new middle eocene whales from the pisco basin of peru journal of paleontology 85 5 955 969 doi http dx doi org 10 1666 10 162 1 uhen m d 2010 the origin s of whales annual review of earth and planetary sciences 38 189 221 available uhen m d 2008 basilosaurids in perrin w f würsig b and thewissen j g m eds encyclopedia of marine mammals second edition elsevier burlington massachusetts available uhen m d 1999 new species of protocetid archaeocete whale eocetus wardii mammalia cetacea from the middle eocene of north carolina journal of paleontology 73 3 512 528 weems r e edwards l e osborne j e and alford a a 2011 an occurrence of the protocetid whale eocetus wardii in the middle eocene formation of virginia journal of paleontology 85 2 271 278 available posted by cameron mccormick at thursday december 15 2011 48 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday november 30 2011 billfish bills what are they good for in the prior article i discussed long beaked dolphins eurhinodelphidae and noted that i couldn t find hypotheses on the function of their uneven jaws in the literature aside from a weird proposal involving skimmers the theatrical tanystropheus mentioned a couple digging for small sand dwelling organisms or as a bat with which to stun fish which are plausible but i don t know where they are from or what lines of reasoning are behind them there are extant species with a superficially similar condition billfishes and it could be relevant to review what they do with their bills atlantic white marlin tetrapturus albidus from wikipedia commons swordfish xiphiidae and marlins sailfishes spearfishes istiophoridae are living sister taxa 1 in the clade xiphioidea while traditionally included in scombroidei billfishes are presently regarded as phylogenetically distinct orrell et al 2006 and possibly close relatives of jacks and flatfishes little et al 2010 fish phylogenetics is scary business and i suspect billfish relations will undergo further revisions as the monstrosity known as perciformes is reasoned into pieces anyways while xiphiids 2 and istiophorids look superficially similar they actually have rather distinctive morphology swordfish have a bill which is flat in cross section toothless blunt tipped and with central chambers compared to rounded denticulated pointed and chamber less for istiophorids a weak mandible much shorter than the rostrum no scales and no pelvic fins collette et al 2006 fierstine 2006 fierstine and voight 1996 citing nakamura 1983 strangely most extinct billfishes have jaws of equal length and if the proposed istiophoridae hemingwayidae and xiphias xiphiorhynchus clades fierstine 2006 are correct see note 1 this would mean the unequal jaws of extant billfishes evolved twice 1 a detailed cladistic analysis with the fossil members of the group has yet to be undertaken fierstine 2006 2 as for what the deal with them and ziphiids is i have no idea swordfish xiphias gladius from wikipedia commons one infamous use of the billfish bill is impaling unexpected objects one blue marlin was found with rostrum fragments from two other different billfish species fierstine 1997 other unfortunates include large fish whales bales of rubber boats ships deep diving vessels people and turtles frazier et al 1994 citing various the billfish on billfish impaling has been interpreted as defense against predators fierstine 1997 and in the case of the turtles it was hypothesized that the billfish accidentally impaled them when aiming for fish aggregated nearby frazier et al 1994 istiophorids can survive with a foreshortened rostrum fierstine 2006 so apparently these accidents are survivable but this raises another question do they need an elongated rostrum at all one study of 227 blue marlins makaira nigric...