DOI: 10.15468/kted5q
title: Fossil Mysticeti from the Pleistocene of Santa Maria Island, Azores (Northeast Atlantic Ocean), and the prevalence of fossil cetaceans on oceanic islands

description: This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Ávila, SP, Cordeiro, R, Rodrigues, AR, Rebelo, AC, Melo, C, Madeira, P, Pyenson, ND (2015): Fossil Mysticeti from the Pleistocene of Santa Maria Island, Azores (Northeast Atlantic Ocean), and the prevalence of fossil cetaceans on oceanic islands. Palaeontologia Electronica (New York, N. Y.) 23 (1): 1-12, DOI: 10.26879/548, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.26879/548ABSTRACTFossil remains of Cetacea are known globally from nearshore marine sediments along continental coastlines, but they are poorly known from volcanic oceanic island archipelagos. Here we report Pleistocene fossil cetacean material from late Neogene and Quaternary age outcrops on the Santa Maria Island of the Azores island archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean. These remains consist of an isolated and highly worn fragment from the mandible of a medium- to large-sized baleen-bearing mysticete (i.e.,Chaeomysticeti), which was exposed at the marine isotope stage 5 (sub-stage MIS 5e)level at Praia do Calhau, after Hurricane Gordon hit Santa Maria Island in August 2012.While this occurrence represents only the second description of Pleistocene cetaceans from volcanic oceanic islands, we predict that fossil cetaceans are likely underreported from oceanic islands, given their extant abundance and richness near oceanic island archipelagos today, whose geomorphology and oceanography provide important settings for the migration and life history patterns of living cetaceans.Sérgio P. Ávila. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores, Departamento de Biologia da Universidade dos Açores, Campus de Ponta Delgada, Apartado 1422, 9501-801 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal; and MPB-Marine PalaeoBiogeography group, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal; and Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal. avila@uac.pt Ricardo Cordeiro. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores, Departamento de Biologia da Universidade dos Açores, Campus de Ponta Delgada, Apartado 1422, 9501-801 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal; and MPB-Marine PalaeoBiogeography group, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal. rjpcordeiro@gmail.com Ana R. Rodrigues. Departamento de Biologia da Universidade dos Açores, Campus de Ponta Delgada, Apartado 1422, 9501-801 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal. arprodrigues.17@gmail.comAna C. Rebelo. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores, Departamento de Biologia da Universidade dos Açores, Campus de Ponta Delgada, Apartado 1422, 9501-801 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal; and MPB-Marine PalaeoBiogeography group, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal; and SMNS - Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, D-70191 Stuttgart, Germany.PE Article Number: 18.2.27ACopyright: Paleontological Society June 2015Submission: 3 March 2015. Acceptance: 22 May 2015acfurtadorebelo@gmail.comCarlos Melo. MPB-Marine PalaeoBiogeography group, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal; and Departamento de Geociências da Universidade dos Açores, Campus de Ponta Delgada, 9501-801 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal. casm.azores@gmail.comPatricia Madeira. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores, Departamento de Biologia da Universidade dos Açores, Campus de Ponta Delgada, Apartado 1422, 9501-801 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal; and MPB-Marine PalaeoBiogeography group, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal. tamissa@hotmail.com Nicholas D. Pyenson. Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, NHB, MRC 121, PO Box 37012 10th & Constitution NW Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA. PyensonN@si.eduKeywords: Fossil Mysticeti; Pleistocene; MIS 5 e; oceanic islands; Azores; NE Atlantic