Orcinus paleorca

Orcinus paleorca is an early species of killer whale from the Middle Pleistocene of Japan known only from a single tooth fragment.

Orcinus paleorca
Temporal range: Calabrian (1.8–0.78 Ma)[1]
O. paleorca holotype, front view (left) and side view (right). Dotted lines indicate inferred dimensions.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Delphinidae
Genus: Orcinus
Species:
†O. paleorca
Binomial name
†Orcinus paleorca
Matsumoto, 1937

Taxonomy

The holotype specimen, a tooth fragment, was found by G. Natsume in the Sanuki Formation in the Kazusa Province of Honshu, Japan–an area dating back to the Middle Pleistocene–and described in 1937 by Japanese paleontologist Hikoshichiro Matsumoto. O. paleorca could represent the ancestor of the modern killer whale (Orcinus orca). Matsumoto noted that the teeth of O. paleorca are much larger and have more similar dimensions to the modern killer whale than those of the Pliocene O. citoniensis are.[2]

Description

The tooth is conical and belonged to the upper right or lower left jaw of an adult individual. The tooth fragment is 5 cm (2.0 in) in height–though the actual height may have been double that–2.25 cm (0.89 in) longitudinally–from the side facing the tongue to the side facing the lip–and 2.95 cm (1.16 in) transversely–from the left side of the tooth to the right.[2] In comparison, the modern killer whale has teeth around 8 cm (3.1 in) in height and 2.5 cm (0.98 in) in diameter.[3] Like the modern killer whale, the tooth lacks a coat of cementum. However, unlike the modern killer whale, O. paleorca had a circular tooth root has opposed to an oval, and the pulp extended more towards the back than the front.[2]

Paleobiology

The Orcinus lineage, like many other predatory marine lineages, may have fished up the food chain, with the apparently more primitive O. citoniensis able to hunt large fish, and the modern killer whale's ability to hunt large whales.[4]

The Middle Pleistocene deposits indicate a warm temperate climate, and temperate forests of land. The marine mammal diversity comprises O. paleorca, an undetermined species of Orcinus, the baleen whale Mizuhoptera, an unidentified oceanic dolphin, the fossil false killer whale Pseudorca yokoyamai, the fossil walrus Odobenus mandanoensis, an undetermined species of Eumetopias sea lion, and the recently extinct Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas).[5][6] Sharks present were the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and the extinct broad-toothed mako (Cosmopolitodus hastalis).[2][7][8]

See also

References
  1. Orca paleorca at fossilworks.org
  2. Matsumoto, Hikoshichiro (1937). "A New Species of Orca from the Basal Calabrian at Naganuma, Minato Town, Province of Kazusa, Japan" (PDF). Zoological Magazine (Japan). 49 (5): 191–193.
  3. "Killer Whale Anatomy". Killer-Whale.org. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  4. Lindberg, D. R.; Pyenson, N. D. (2006). Estes, J. A.; DeMaster, D. P.; Doak, D. F. (eds.). Whales, Whaling, and Ocean Ecosystems. University of California Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-520-24884-7.
  5. Oishi, M.; Hasegawa, Y. (1994). "A List of Fossils Cetaceans in Japan". Island Arc. 3 (4): 496. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1738.1994.tb00128.x.
  6. Furusawa, H.; Kohno, N. (1994). "Steller's sea-cow (Sirenia: Hydrodamalis gigas) from the Middle Pleistocene Mandano Formation of the Boso Peninsula, central Japan". Japanese Paleontological Society (in Japanese). 56. doi:10.14825/kaseki.56.0_26.
  7. Kawamura, Y. (1991). "Quaternary Mammalian Faunas in the Japanese Islands". Quaternary Research. 30 (2): 213–220.
  8. Tokunaga, S. (1933). "A List of the Fossil Mammals of Japan and Korea with Descriptions of New Eocene Forms from Korea". American Museum Novitates (627).
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