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Article: Freshwater occurrence of the extinct dolphin Parapontoporia (Cetacea: Lipotidae) from the upper Pliocene nonmarine Tulare Formation of California

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 58
Part: 3
Publication Date: May 2015
Page(s): 489 496
Author(s): Robert W. Boessenecker and Ashley W. Poust
Addition Information

How to Cite

BOESSENECKER, R.W., POUST, A.W. 2015. Freshwater occurrence of the extinct dolphin Parapontoporia (Cetacea: Lipotidae) from the upper Pliocene nonmarine Tulare Formation of California. Palaeontology, 58, 3, 489-496.

Author Information

  • Robert W. Boessenecker - Department of Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (email: robert.boessenecker@otago.ac.nz)
  • Robert W. Boessenecker - University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, CA, USA
  • Ashley W. Poust - University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, CA, USA (email: ashley.poust@berkeley.edu)
  • Ashley W. Poust - Department of Integrative Biology, Berkeley, CA, USA

Publication History

  • Issue published online: 21 APR 2015
  • Article first published online: 27 FEB 2015
  • Manuscript Accepted: 12 JAN 2015
  • Manuscript Received: 24 OCT 2014

Funded By

University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library
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Abstract

The diminutive, extinct longirostrine dolphin Parapontoporia is one of the most abundantly represented late Neogene odontocetes from the eastern North Pacific and is widely known from numerous marine strata of late Miocene and Pliocene age in California, Baja California and possibly Japan. Parapontoporia has been identified as the sister taxon of the recently extinct Chinese river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer); unlike Lipotes, which exclusively inhabited freshwater, the depositional context of Parapontoporia suggests it was marine. A newly identified petrosal of Parapontoporia sp. was preserved alongside terrestrial vertebrates in the nonmarine Tulare Formation (upper Pliocene to Pleistocene, 2.2–0.6 Ma), California, which was deposited under lacustrine and fluviodeltaic conditions. Abundantly preserved freshwater molluscs and rare marine taxa suggest predominantly freshwater settings with intermittent periods of estuarine conditions. This occurrence of Parapontoporia indicates its presence in the San Joaquin basin after the retreat of the inland sea and suggests that this extinct odontocete may have been freshwater tolerant and an inhabitant of marine and freshwater settings, heralding the exclusively freshwater existence of its Recent sister taxon Lipotes vexillifer.

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