Archaebalaenoptera

Archaebalaenoptera is a genus of extinct rorqual known from late Miocene to Pliocene-age marine deposits of the Netherlands, northern Italy, and Peru.

Archaebalaenoptera
Temporal range: late Miocene–Pliocene
Skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: †Archaebalaenoptera
Bisconti, 2007
Species

†A. castriarquati (type) Bisconti, 2007

†A. liesselensis Bisconti, 2020

Classification

The type species, A. castriarquati, was discovered in 1983 from the sediments of the late Pliocene (Piacenzian) Castell’Arquato Formation in northern Italy.[1] A cladistic analysis of Balaenopteridae recovered Archaebalaenoptera as one of if not the most primitive rorqual.[1] A second Archaebalaenoptera species, A. liesselensis, is known from the late Miocene (late Tortonian) Breda Formation near Liessel, in the Netherlands while an unnamed species is known from Peru. A. liesselensis differs from the type species and the unnamed Peruvian species in being larger.[2]

A reconstruction of the primitive rorqual A. liesselensis

Paleobiology

The primitive morphology of the jaw suggests that Archaebalaenoptera probably was not capable of ram feeding like living rorquals and humpback whales.[1]

References
  1. M. Bisconti. 2007. A new basal balaenopterid whale from the Pliocene of northern Italy. Palaeontology 50(5):1103-1122
  2. Bisconti M, Munsterman DK, Fraaije RHB, Bosselaers MEJ, Post K. 2020. A new species of rorqual whale (Cetacea, Mysticeti, Balaenopteridae) from the Late Miocene of the Southern North Sea Basin and the role of the North Atlantic in the paleobiogeography of Archaebalaenoptera. PeerJ 8:e8315 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8315


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