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<DIV id=productTitle><FONT size=3><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3><STRONG>Palaeontology</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=articleDetails xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><A
href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.2010.53.issue-5/issuetoc"
shape=rect><FONT color=#000000><SPAN id=volumeNumber>Volume 53</SPAN>, <SPAN
id=issueNumber>Issue 5</SPAN>, </FONT></A><SPAN id=issuePages>pages
1077–1098</SPAN>, <SPAN id=issueDate>September 2010</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class="citation articleInformationHeader"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Article first published online: 16 SEP
2010</DIV>
<DIV class="citation articleInformationHeader" id=doi
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00995.x</DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=articleTitle> </DIV>
<DIV class=articleTitle><FONT size=4>High concentration of long-snouted beaked
whales (genus <EM>Messapicetus</EM>) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=articleTitle><FONT size=4>from the Miocene of Peru</FONT></DIV>
<DIV class="citation articleInformationHeader"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<DIV id=cr1>GIOVANNI BIANUCCI<SUP>1</SUP>, OLIVIER LAMBERT<SUP>2,3</SUP>, KLAAS
POST<SUP>4</SUP></DIV></DIV>
<DIV id=productTitle><SUP>1</SUP> Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra,
Università di Pisa, via S.Maria, 53, I-56126 Pisa, Italy; e-mail <!--TODO: clickthrough URL--><A title="Link to email address"
href="mailto:bianucci@dst.unipi.it" shape=rect><FONT color=#007e8a><A
href="mailto:bianucci@dst.unipi.it2">bianucci@dst.unipi.it</FONT></A><SUP>2</A></SUP>
Département de Paléontologie, Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de
Belgique, Rue Vautier, 29, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium</DIV>
<DIV class="citation articleInformationHeader" id=additionalInformation
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<DIV style="CLEAR: left">
<DIV class=affiliation jQuery1297008382005="8"><SUP>3</SUP> Present address:
Département Histoire de la Terre, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Rue
Buffon, 8, F-75005 Paris, France; e-mail <!--TODO: clickthrough URL--><A
title="Link to email address" href="mailto:olambert@mnhn.fr" shape=rect><FONT
color=#007e8a>olambert@mnhn.fr</FONT></A><SUP> 4</SUP> Natuurhistorisch
Museum Rotterdam, PO Box 23452, 3001 KL Rotterdam, The Netherlands; e-mail <!--TODO: clickthrough URL--><A title="Link to email address"
href="mailto:klaaspost@fishcon.nl" shape=rect><FONT
color=#007e8a>klaaspost@fishcon.nl</FONT></A></DIV>
<UL class="" id=footnotes><FONT color=#007e8a></FONT></UL>
<UL class="" id=footnotes><FONT color=#007e8a></FONT></UL>
<DIV id=publicationHistoryDetails jQuery1297008382005="10"><B>Abstract:
</B>Eight skulls of beaked whales (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Ziphiidae), in six cases
associated with elements of the mandible, were collected from a limited area
(about 1.5 km<SUP><FONT size=1>2</FONT></SUP>) and roughly from the same
stratigraphic horizon at <U>Cerro Colorado</U>, 35 km south-south-west of
the city of Ica (Peru), where the late Middle Miocene basal strata of the Pisco
Formation crop out. They represent the highest concentration reported of fossil
Ziphiidae. These finely preserved Cerro Colorado fossils are described and
assigned to a new species <EM>Messapicetus gregarius</EM>, together with another
specimen collected from sediments of the same age at Cerro la Bruja (33 km
south-east to Cerro Colorado). <EM>Messapicetus gregarius</EM> shares with
<EM>M. longirostris</EM> Bianucci, Landini and Varola, 1992 (Tortonian of
Italy), an extremely elongated rostrum, but is clearly different from the
Italian species in the more distinct maxillary tubercle and prominential notch,
the more robust premaxillary crest, and the abrupt ventrolateral descent of the
medial margin of the maxilla from the vertex. A parsimony analysis reveals that
<EM>Messapicetus</EM> belongs to a basal clade, which includes other ziphiids
with a dorsally closed mesorostral groove and prenarial basin. The high
concentration of specimens belonging to the same species (some of them
tentatively identified as adult males and females), combined with the presence
of a calf, supports the hypothesis of site fidelity; these cetaceans might have
lived in a limited region for a long period for both breeding and feeding.
Besides the eight specimens of <EM>M. gregarius</EM>, strata at Cerro
Colorado include many other cetacean remains (with several specimens of the
pontoporiid <EM>Brachydelphis</EM> including a foetus), pinnipeds, turtles,
fishes, and birds.</DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>