New Zealand Journal of Geology
and Geophysics abstracts
Whale barnacles and Neogene
cetacean migration routes
Giovanni Bianucci
Walter Landini
Dipartimento di Scienze della
Terra
Università di Pisa
Via S. Maria, 53 56126 Pisa, Italy
John Buckeridge
EOS
Auckland University of Technology
Private Bag 92 006
Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract An
exceptional fossil assemblage of the ectoparasitic whale barnacle Coronula
diadema was recently discovered
from late Pliocene-Pleistocene sediments outcropping on the coast of
Ecuador where today humpback whales (Megaptera
novaeangliae) migrate for
breeding. A similar occurrence is recorded in New Zealand and in
Vanuatu, where late Pliocene-Pleistocene fossil coronulids have been
found in sediments along the coasts that are current humpback whale
migration routes. In both Ecuador and New Zealand we have collected
fragmentary whale remains in association with these barnacle
assemblages. Considering that detachment of whale barnacles from extant
humpback whales has only been observed in breeding areas or along
migratory routes, we view the Ecuador and New Zealand fossil barnacle
assemblages as indirect evidence of whale migration during the late
Neogene. Application of this hypothesis to the distribution pattern of
fossil Coronula
in the Mediterranean Basin, indicates that, unlike the present,
mysticete whales may have used the Mediterranean as a breeding ground
during the Pliocene and Pleistocene.
Keywords humpback
whale; Megaptera;
barnacle; Coronula;
migration; Ecuador; New Zealand; Vanuatu; Mediterranean; Neogene;
Pliocene; Pleistocene
G05028; Received 23 June 2005;
accepted 17 October 2005; Online publication date 28 February 2006
New Zealand Journal of Geology
& Geophysics, 2006, Vol. 49:
115–120
0028–8306/06/4901–0115 © The Royal Society of New
Zealand 2006
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