Neobalaenidae is a family of baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti) including the extant pygmy right whale. Although traditionally considered related to balaenids, recent studies by Fordyce and Marx (2013) and Ludovic Dutoit and colleagues (2023) have recovered the living pygmy right whale as a member of Cetotheriidae, making it the only extant cetotheriid. Not all authors agree with this placement.
| Neobalaenidae Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Pygmy right whale Caperea marginata | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Parvorder: | Mysticeti |
| Family: | Neobalaenidae Miller, 1923 |
| Genera | |
| |
Taxonomy
editThe family Neobalaenidae was long restricted to the pygmy right whale from the Southern Hemisphere due to the unusual skeletal form of the species relative to other extant mysticetes.[1][2][3] Until the early 2010s Neobalaenidae was unknown from the fossil record despite a study by Sasaki et al. (2005) placing the divergence date of Neobalaenidae from other living baleen whales at 23 mya.[4]
Fordyce and Marx found that the pygmy right whale formed a well-supported clade with Eschrichtiidae and Balaenopteridae based on molecular data, and that, within 'cetotheres', it was most closely related to the herpetocetines (Herpetocetus and Nannocetus), rendering the pygmy right whale the only living species of Cetotheriidae.[5] Around the same time, Bisconti had described the first pygmy right whale from the fossil record, Miocaperea, from the Pisco Formation of Peru.[6] Bisconti, however, found, based on morphological data, it to be more closely related to Balaenidae (the bowhead and right whales), but added that additional specimens are expected to resolve these conflicting results within a few years.[7] Cladistic analyses by Gol'din and Steeman partly agreed with Fordyce and Marx in recovering neobalaenids as closer to cetotheres than to Balaenidae, but disagreed with their recovery of the pygmy right whale as a herpetocetine, instead recovering Neobalaenidae outside Cetotheriidae.[8][9]
Fossil record
editExamples of Neobalaenidae in the fossil record include Miocaperea, a couple of indeterminate earbones from Australia (one similar to Caperea),[10][11] and specimens from Pleistocene localities in the Northern Hemisphere.[12]
References
edit- ^ Bouetel V, de Muizon C. (2006). "The anatomy and relationships of Piscobalaena nana (Cetacea, Mysticeti), a Cetotheriidae s.s. from the early Pliocene of Peru". Geodiversitas. 28: 319–395.
- ^ Steeman M.E. (2007). "Cladistic analysis and a revised classification of fossil and recent mysticetes". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 150 (4): 875–894. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00313.x.
- ^ Churchill, Morgan; Berta, Annalisa; Deméré, Thomas (2012). "The systematics of right whales (Mysticeti: Balaenidae)". Marine Mammal Science. 28 (3): 497–521. doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00504.x.
- ^ Sasaki, Takeshi; Nikaido, Masato; Hamilton, Healy; Goto, Mutsuo; Kato, Hidehiro; Kanda, Naohisa; Pastene, Luis A.; Cao, Ying; Fordyce, R. Ewan; Hasegawa, Masami; Okada, Norihiro (2005). "Mitochondrial Phylogenetics and Evolution of Mysticete Whales". Systematic Biology. 54 (1): 77–90. doi:10.1080/10635150590905939. PMID 15805012.
- ^ Fordyce, R. Ewan; Marx, Felix G. (2013). "The pygmy right whale Caperea marginata: the last of the cetotheres". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280 (1753). doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.2645. PMC 3574355. PMID 23256199.
- ^ Bisconti, M. (2012). "Comparative osteology and phylogenetic relationships of Miocaperea pulchra, the first fossil pygmy right whale genus and species (Cetacea, Mysticeti, Neobalaenidae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 166 (4): 876–911. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00862.x.
- ^ Bisconti, Michelangelo; Lambert, Olivier; Bosselaers, Mark (2013). "Taxonomic revision of Isocetus depauwi (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti) and the phylogenetic relationships of archaic "cetothere" mysticetes". Palaeontology. 56: 95–127. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2012.01168.x.
- ^ Gol'Din, Pavel; Steeman, Mette Elstrup (2015). "From problem taxa to problem solver: a new miocene family, tranatocetidae, brings perspective on baleen whale evolution". PLOS ONE. 10 (9): e0135500. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1035500G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135500. PMC 4558012. PMID 26331471.
- ^ Gol'din P. (2018). "New Paratethyan dwarf baleen whales mark the origin of cetotheres". PeerJ. 6: e5800. doi:10.7717/peerj.5800. PMC 6193469. PMID 30356949.
- ^ Fitzgerald, E.M.G. (2012). "Possible neobalaenid from the Miocene of Australia implies a long evolutionary history for the pygmy right whale Caperea marginata (Cetacea, Mysticeti)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (4): 976–980. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.669803. S2CID 83784488.
- ^ Marx, Felix G.; Park, Travis; Fitzgerald, Erich M.G.; Evans, Alistair R. (2018). "A Miocene pygmy right whale fossil from Australia". PeerJ. 6: e5025. doi:10.7717/peerj.5025. PMC 6016540. PMID 29942692.
- ^ Tsai, C. H.; Collareta, A.; Fitzgerald EMG; Marx, F. G.; Kohno, N.; Bosselaers, M.; Insacco, G.; Reitano, A.; Catanzariti, R.; Oishi, M.; Bianucci, G. (2017). "Northern pygmy right whales highlight Quaternary marine mammal exchange". Current Biology. 27 (19): R1058–R1059. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.08.056. PMID 29017038. S2CID 23877418.
