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A Giant Eocene Whale from Ukraine Uncovers Early Cetacean Adaptations to the Fully Aquatic Life

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Abstract

The earliest fully aquatic cetaceans arose during the Middle Eocene; however, the earliest stage of their divergence is obscure. Here, we provide a detailed redescription of an unusual early cetacean, “Platyosphys einori”, from the Late Eocene of Ukraine (37.8–35.8 million years ago), with new data on its body size, skeletal microanatomy and suggestions on phylogenetic relationships. The procedure of regression analysis has been developed for the body size estimation from the size of the longest vertebra and the width of a cervical vertebra. “Platyosphys einori”, identified here as Basilosauridae incertae sedis, is a fully aquatic cetacean with a pronounced neck, poorly developed or low frequency underwater hearing, and it has a mix of plesiomorphic and derived traits. It is unusually large for a cetacean of that time, approximately 10 m long, and it is possibly very young and fast-growing for its body size. There is no pachyosteosclerotic cortex in vertebrae, and there is a large amount of spongy tissue in the rib. Therefore, “Platyosphys einori”, even if juvenile, is at the intermediate stage between early cetaceans with osteosclerotic bones and modern whales with osteoporotic skeleton. Thus, “Platyosphys einori” shows adaptations to life in water typical for modern whales but unique for the Eocene cetaceans.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Oleksandr Mitrokhin and Oleg Ogienko who showed us the exact locality of the specimen and helped with field sampling; Volodymyr Ochakovsky for his help in the field and lab analyses; Volodymyr Gritsenko for his helpful explanation on the specimen; Igor Dzeverin for the discussion of the results; Olga Vakulenko (GMTSNUK), Oleksandr Kovalchuk (NMNH-P), Morten Tange Olsen (University of Copenhagen) and Oleksandr Zinenko (Kharkiv National University) for their help in work with the specimens under their care; Philip Gingerich who kindly donated the cast of Platyosphys aithai; Mickaël J. Mourlam and an unknown reviewer for the comments to the early draft of the manuscript. The work by S.D. and P.G. was partially funded by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine, grant 2020.02/0247 “Integration of mammalian organism as a proxy of stability at aquatic and aerial life (as illustrated by skeleton traits)”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

    Svitozar Davydenko & Pavel Gol’din

  2. Institute of Geological Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

    Tetiana Shevchenko & Tamara Ryabokon

  3. Institute of Orthopedics and Traumatology, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

    Roman Tretiakov

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  1. Svitozar Davydenko
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  2. Tetiana Shevchenko
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Davydenko, S., Shevchenko, T., Ryabokon, T. et al. A Giant Eocene Whale from Ukraine Uncovers Early Cetacean Adaptations to the Fully Aquatic Life. Evol Biol 48, 67–80 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-020-09524-8

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