Kogia pusilla from the Middle Pliocene of Tuscany (Italy) and a Phylogenetic analysis of the family Kogiidae (Odontoceti, Cetacea)

Citation
G. Bianucci et W. Landini, Kogia pusilla from the Middle Pliocene of Tuscany (Italy) and a Phylogenetic analysis of the family Kogiidae (Odontoceti, Cetacea), RIV IT PAL, 105(3), 1999, pp. 445-453
Citations number
36
Categorie Soggetti
Earth Sciences
Journal title
Rivista italiana di paleontologia e stratigrafia (Testo stampato)
ISSN journal
00356883 → ACNP
Volume
105
Issue
3
Year of publication
1999
Pages
445 - 453
Database
ISI
SICI code
0035-6883(199912)105:3<445:KPFTMP>2.0.ZU;2-#
Abstract
A partial skull of an odontocete cetacean from Middle Pliocene sediments of Monte Voltraio (Pisa Province, Tuscany, Italy) is examined. This fossil, e rroneously referred to the family Ziphiidae and described in the past as ho lotype of the species Hyperoodon pusillus, is assigned here to the genus Ko gia (family Kogiidae). The species Kogia pusilla is redescribed and compare d to the living species K. breviceps and K, simus. Phylogenetically, an old separation (at least in the Lower Miocene) of Kogi idae and Physeteridae is suggested. The lack of substantiated kogiid record s until the Upper Miocene is probably due to the rarity of these cetaceans. Phyletic analysis within the Kogiidae is undertaken and supposed apomorphi es in the morphology and/or the extension of the supracranial basin that ho uses the large air sacs and the spermaceti organ are considered.