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First Toothless Platanistoid from the Early Miocene of Patagonia: the Golden Age of Diversification of the Odontoceti

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Abstract

Lower Miocene outcrops from Patagonia (Gaiman Formation, Burdigalian) may reveal more clues for the yet unknown aspects for this period in the evolution of odontocetes. Here, we present the first toothless platanistoid dolphin from the lower Miocene of Patagonia, Dolgopolis kinchikafiforo, gen. et sp. nov. The specimen includes an incomplete skull, with no mandibles or earbones, but sufficiently different from other named odontocetes to propose a new genus and species. Phylogenetic analyses indicate it is a platanistoid of uncertain position within the group, and that it shares some homoplastic characters with physeteroids and ziphioids. Given the absence of defined alveoli and teeth and an inferred moderately short and wide rostrum, we interpreted this new species as most likely a capture suction feeder. Based on our phylogenetic hypothesis, the optimization of feeding strategies recovered raptorial feeding as the plesiomorphic method, and convergent evolution of capture suction feeders in at least four lineages. Platanistoids recorded all feeding strategies during the late Oligocene-early Miocene, although raptorial is the predominant method. This suggests a partitioning of the ecological niches in the early phases of platanistoid evolution, as well as a high diversification of feeding methods previously underestimated for this period. Thus, ecological adaptations have a strong evolutionary pressure in odontocete communities and should be further explored.

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Acknowledgments

First we would like to thank the Arbeletche family, for donating the specimen studied here and for their access to modern studies of the locality. We also thank S. Bessone for specimen preparation. To the following curators for access to the collections under their care: M.E. Pérez and E. Ruigomez (MEF); M. Reguero and A. Scarano (MLP); N. Pyenson (USNM); N.B. Simmons (AMNH); A. van Helden (NMNZ); and O. Lambert, A. Folie, and O. Pauwels (IRSNB). We also would like to thank O. Lehmann for lending the script used for the analysis of multiple implied weights K values. We would like to thank Verónica Dominguez for her help in the Mapudungún words used to nominate this new species. To N. Toledo and C. Giachetti for all their help during methodological discussions. This contribution used TNT version 1.5, a program made freely available thanks to a subsidy by the Willi Hennig Society. We also would like to thank the following organizations for financial support: Cetacean Society International (CSI) to MV and MRB; Learner-Gray Grant from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to MRB; Sociedad Argentina para el Estudio de Mamíferos (SAREM) to MV; Smithsonian Institution (Remington Kellogg Fund) to MRB; Ernst Mayr Grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University (MCZ) to MV; Grants in aid of research from the Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) to MV and MG; and Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (grant number PICT 0792) to MB and JIC. Finally, we would like to thank the editor J. R. Wible, R. Boessenecker, R.E. Fordyce and an anonymous reviewer whose comments greatly improved this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología, CCT CONICET-CENPAT, Bvd. Brown 2915, U9120ACD, Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina

    Mariana Viglino, C. Maximiliano Gaetán, José I. Cuitiño & Mónica R. Buono

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  1. Mariana Viglino
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  2. C. Maximiliano Gaetán
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  3. José I. Cuitiño
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  4. Mónica R. Buono
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Correspondence to Mariana Viglino.

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Viglino, M., Gaetán, C.M., Cuitiño, J.I. et al. First Toothless Platanistoid from the Early Miocene of Patagonia: the Golden Age of Diversification of the Odontoceti. J Mammal Evol 28, 337–358 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-020-09505-w

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