TY - JOUR
T1 - Isotopes from fossil coronulid barnacle shells record evidence of migration in multiple Pleistocene whale populations
AU - Taylor, Larry D.
AU - O’Dea, Aaron
AU - Bralower, Timothy J.
AU - Finnegan, Seth
N1 - Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank Tom Demere and Kesler Randall (San Diego Natural History Museum), Moe Flannery, Christina Piotrowski, and the late Jean Demouthe (California Academy of Sciences), and Nick Pyenson (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) for contributing specimens to this study; Paul Taylor, Ethan Grossman, and Abigail Kelly for their help in the field; Wenbo Yang, Todd Dawson, and Stefania Mambelli (Center for Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry) for their help with all isotope analysis; the staff at the University of California, Berkeley Electron Microscope Laboratory for advice and assistance in electron microscopy sample preparation and data collection; and Valerie and Bill Anders for their generous support. This study was supported by NSF Grant EAR-1325683 and the National System of Investigators (National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation) (to A.O.), by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (S.F.), and by funding from the Paleontological Society, the Geological Society of America, Sigma Xi, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology (L.D.T.).
Funding Information:
We thank Tom Demere and Kesler Randall (San Diego Natural History Museum), Moe Flannery, Christina Piotrowski, and the late Jean Demouthe (California Academy of Sciences), and Nick Pyenson (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) for contributing specimens to this study; Paul Taylor, Ethan Grossman, and Abigail Kelly for their help in the field; Wenbo Yang, Todd Dawson, and Stefania Mambelli (Center for Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry) for their help with all isotope analysis; the staff at the University of California, Berkeley Electron Microscope Laboratory for advice and assistance in electron microscopy sample preparation and data collection; and Valerie and Bill Anders for their generous support. This study was supported by NSF Grant EAR-1325683 and the National System of Investigators (National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation) (to A.O.), by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (S.F.), and by funding from the Paleontological Society, the Geological Society of America, Sigma Xi, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology (L.D.T.).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 National Academy of Sciences. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2019/4/9
Y1 - 2019/4/9
N2 - Migration is an integral feature of modern mysticete whale ecology, and the demands of migration may have played a key role in shaping mysticete evolutionary history. Constraining when migration became established and assessing how it has changed through time may yield valuable insight into the evolution of mysticete whales and the oceans in which they lived. However, there are currently few data which directly assess prehistoric mysticete migrations. Here we show that calcite δ18O profiles of two species of modern whale barnacles (coronulids) accurately reflect the known migration routes of their host whales. We then analyze well-preserved fossil coronulids from three different locations along the eastern Pacific coast, finding that δ18O profiles from these fossils exhibit trends and ranges similar to modern specimens. Our results demonstrate that migration is an ancient behavior within the humpback and gray whale lineages and that multiple Pleistocene populations were undertaking migrations of an extent similar to those of the present day.
AB - Migration is an integral feature of modern mysticete whale ecology, and the demands of migration may have played a key role in shaping mysticete evolutionary history. Constraining when migration became established and assessing how it has changed through time may yield valuable insight into the evolution of mysticete whales and the oceans in which they lived. However, there are currently few data which directly assess prehistoric mysticete migrations. Here we show that calcite δ18O profiles of two species of modern whale barnacles (coronulids) accurately reflect the known migration routes of their host whales. We then analyze well-preserved fossil coronulids from three different locations along the eastern Pacific coast, finding that δ18O profiles from these fossils exhibit trends and ranges similar to modern specimens. Our results demonstrate that migration is an ancient behavior within the humpback and gray whale lineages and that multiple Pleistocene populations were undertaking migrations of an extent similar to those of the present day.
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1808759116
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1808759116
M3 - Article
C2 - 30910962
AN - SCOPUS:85064111813
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 116
SP - 7377
EP - 7381
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 15
ER -