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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/28/fossil-whale-found-surrounded-by-prehistoric-puke/"><span
style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'>Fossil Whale Found Surrounded by
Prehistoric Puke</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=post-time-text><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";text-transform:uppercase'>10/28/2015</span></span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";text-transform:uppercase'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/28/fossil-whale-found-surrounded-by-prehistoric-puke/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:21.0pt;
background:white'><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/files/2015/10/messapicetus-feeding.jpg"><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919;text-decoration:
none'><img border=0 width=1024 height=1024 id="Imagen_x0020_1"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01D115AA.A6312FC0"
alt="Messapicetus feeding on a school of prehistoric sardines. Art by A. Gennari."></span></a><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:21.0pt;
background:white'><em><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#191919'>Messapicetus</span></em><span class=apple-converted-space><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'> </span></span><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>feeding on
a school of prehistoric sardines. Art by A. Gennari.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:21.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#191919'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>Spread
along the southwestern coast of Peru, the 9.9 to 8.9 million year old rock of
the Pisco Formation has yielded some stunning fossils. Paleontologists working
there have found the bones of<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2010/sep/20/sperm-whales-fossils"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#191919;text-decoration:none'>enormous
predatory whales</span></a>,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/15/great-white-shark-ancestry-swims-into-focus/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#191919;text-decoration:none'>delicately-preserved
shark jaws</span></a>, and<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.academia.edu/2475944/New_Sea_Turtle_from_the_Miocene_of_Peru_and_the_Iterative_Evolution_of_Feeding_Ecomorphologies_since_the_Cretaceous"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#191919;text-decoration:none'>sea turtles</span></a>,
just to name a few highlights. But even those finds pale in comparison to a
real rarity that was announced just last month: prehistoric whale vomit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>The
unusual fossil, described by paleontologist Olivier Lambert and colleagues, is
encased in a chunk of exceptionally-hard dolomite. The stone is so resilient,
in fact, that preparing the rock away from the bones with tools and acid proved
impossible. Nevertheless, the lower jaws of the early beaked whale<em><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Messapicetus gregarius</span></em><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>can clearly be seen jutting from the
rock, and surrounding those jaws are dozens of ancient sardines.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>No one has
found a fossil like this before. Fossil whale gut contents are extremely rare,
and the sardines scattered across the fossil block had previously only been
known from scales and other tattered remnants picked out of the Pisco
Formation. And while it’s true that<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/02/auction-block-dinosaur-stirs-controversy-at-svp/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#191919;text-decoration:none'>association
doesn’t always equate with interaction</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>when it comes to fossils, Lambert and
coauthors make a solid case that the fossil wasn’t an accidental burial
of a whale that came to rest on a bed of fish. A search in the same narrow
layer around the whale failed to turn up any more fish, and, if they were
anything like their modern counterparts, the ancient sardines were filter
feeders that wouldn’t have been scavenging on the whale carcass.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:21.0pt;
background:white'><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/files/2015/10/whale-and-fish.jpg"><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919;text-decoration:
none'><img border=0 width=1024 height=903 id="Imagen_x0020_2"
src="cid:image002.jpg@01D115AA.A6312FC0"
alt="The remains of Messapicetus and prehistoric sardines. From Lambert et al., 2015."></span></a><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:21.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#191919'>The remains of Messapicetus and prehistoric sardines. From
Lambert et al., 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:21.0pt;background:white'><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#191919'> </span></span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>The
strongest scenario, Lambert and colleagues argue, is that this<em><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Messapicetus</span></em><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>gorged itself on sardines just hours
before its death. The fish fossils are preserved along the whale’s chest,
throat, and mouth, showing little to no sign of digestion. Not that all of them
got buried as gut contents. A large number of the 40-60 fish are scattered
around the whale’s mouth. The cetacean heaved them up in death. This
might be a clue as to what happened to the unfortunate<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Messapicetus</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>The fact
that<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span style='font-family:
"Georgia","serif"'>Messapicetus</span></em><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>ate
filter-feeding fish doesn’t only end up being a useful indicator for the
timing of whale evolution –<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Messapicetus</span></em><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>patrolled coastal surface waters and
was not a deep diver like its modern beaked whale relatives – but it also
provides a pathway by which the cetacean could have been poisoned. There were
toxic algal blooms<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://paleocreations.com/buy.php?imagID=438&rp=/imagePage.php?page=3"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#191919;text-decoration:none'>during
prehistory</span></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>just as
there are today, and the sardines could have fed on crustaceans that had in
turn eaten the algae, eventually passing the toxins up through the food web to
the<em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Messapicetus</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>Unfortunately,
though, no sign of toxic algae has shown up in the same rock layer as the whale
and the fish. A suspect fitting the profile has yet to appear. But the idea
itself gives paleontologists something else to look for. Multiple other<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Messapicetus</span></em><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>have been found nearby, not to mention
the various other marine creatures, and toxic algal blooms have been blamed for<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140227-ancient-whale-beached-stranding-fossil-animals-ocean-science/"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#191919;text-decoration:none'>other
aggregations of prehistoric whales</span></a>. The fatally-queasy whale could
be the initial sign of ancient killers almost too small to see.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><b><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>Reference:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:21.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit'><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#191919'>Lambert,
O., Collareta, A., Landini, W., Post, K., Ramassamy, B., Di Celma, C., Urbina,
M., Bianucci, G. 2015.<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royprsb/282/1815/20151530.full.pdf"
target="_blank"><span style='color:#191919;text-decoration:none'>No deep
diving: evidence of predation on epipelagic fish for a stem beaked whale from
the Late Miocene of Peru</span></a>.<em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Proceedings
of the Royal Society B</span></em>. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1530<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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