Evolutionary Patterns in Cetacea Fishing Up Prey Size through Deep Time

Lindberg, David R.; Pyenson, Nicholas D.

doi:10.1525/california/9780520248847.003.0007

Cited by 18 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…These data, together with the apparent monophyly of Balaeopteroidea (Deméré et al 2005), provide tentative support for an evolutionary scenario advanced by Lambertsen et al (1995), which frames lunge feeding as a putative key innovation that enhanced a pre-existing suite of engulfment-assisting morphological characters (Kimura 2002, Deméré et al 2005. Moreover, the present diversity of living balaenopterids (in terms of both prey preferences and body size range; Lindberg & Pyenson 2006), sister group comparisons, and ancestral body size reconstruction all suggest that the advent of lunge feeding provided an ecological advantage that promoted large body size in the balaenopterid lineage, eventually providing the opportunity for the evolution of some of the largest organisms that have ever existed. However, these hypotheses cannot be tested until (1) further comparative work identifies clear evolutionary transformations in the cranial and mandibular character complexes (e.g.…”

Section: Ecology and Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Rorquals are among the most speciose groups of living cetaceans, whereas balaenids comprise only a few species; a difference that is also observed in the generic diversity of these 2 groups throughout their evolutionary history (Lindberg & Pyenson 2006). Preliminary reconstructions of body size in extinct balaenopteroids indicate that, ancestrally, this group of baleen whales did not exhibit the larger size categories of their extant relatives (Pyenson & Sponberg 2007), and the same situation appears to be true for the balaenid lineage as well (Bisconti 2005).…”

Section: Ecology and Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Big gulps require high drag for fin whale lunge feeding

Goldbogen¹,

Pyenson²,

Shadwick³

2007

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

138

202

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Fin whales Balaenoptera physalus exhibit one of the most extreme feeding methods among aquatic vertebrates. Fin whales, and other rorquals (Balaenopteridae), lunge with their mouth fully agape, thereby generating dynamic pressure to stretch their mouth around a large volume of prey-laden water, which is then filtered by racks of baleen. Despite their large body size, fin whales appear to be limited to short dive durations, likely because of the energetic cost associated with large accelerations of the body during several lunges at depth. Here, we incorporate kinematic data from high-resolution digital tags and morphological data of the engulfment apparatus in a simple mechanical model to estimate the drag acting on a lunge-feeding fin whale. This model also allowed us to quantify the amount of water and prey obtained in a single lunge. Our analysis suggests that the reconfiguration and expansion of the buccal cavity enables an adult fin whale to engulf approximately 60 to 82 m 3 of water, a volume greater than its entire body. This large engulfment capacity, however, comes at a high cost because the drag, work against drag, and drag coefficient dramatically increase over the course of a lunge. As a result, kinetic energy is rapidly dissipated from the body, and each subsequent lunge requires acceleration from rest. Despite this high cost, living balaenopterids are not only among the largest animals on earth, but are relatively speciose and exhibit diverse prey preferences. Given this ecological diversity, we frame our results in an evolutionary context, and address the implications of our results for the origin of lunge feeding.

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Section: Ecology and Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Ecology and Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Big gulps require high drag for fin whale lunge feeding

Goldbogen¹,

Pyenson²,

Shadwick³

2007

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

138

202

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“…Although human-initiated overexploitation is well understood, extending back through the Pleistocene [44], identifying definitive examples of predator-driven extinction in the fossil record is more elusive, despite potential candidates. One example comes from the Neogene, where declining mysticete whale diversity coincided with the occurrence of carcharodontid sharks [45] and sperm whales [46]. Although these predators fed on mysticete whales during the Neogene [46,47], it is challenging to determine from the fossil record whether predation was directly responsible for the extinction of mysticete species.…”

Section: Overexploitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinctions in ancient and modern seas

Harnik

Lotze

Anderson

et al. 2012

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Self Cite

234

194

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“…While the strong correlation between TL and adult body mass has been well documented for both mysticetes and odontocetes (Mackintosh and Wheeler 1929;Nishiwaki 1950;Gambell 1970;Perrin 1975;Lockyer 1976;Uhen 2004), TL is more widely reported in the literature for other marine vertebrates (e.g., teleosts, elasmobranchs, and Mesozoic marine reptiles). Because of the abundant specimen data available from the whaling industry and long-term stranding programs, some cetological studies have sought to predict the body size of living cetaceans using proxy metrics (e.g., Stuart and Morejohn 1980;Kemper and Leddard 1999), but few have explored the implications of such proxies for illuminating evolutionary patterns in the fossil record (Lindberg and Pyenson 2006). In this study, we favored the approach of using total length as a valid size metric.…”

Section: Reconstructing Body Size Using Total Lengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing Body Size in Extinct Crown Cetacea (Neoceti) Using Allometry, Phylogenetic Methods and Tests from the Fossil Record

2011

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Living cetaceans exhibit interspecific size ranging across several orders of magnitude, and rank among the largest vertebrates ever. Details of how cetaceans evolved different body sizes, however, remain obscure, because they lack basic morphological proxies that have been traditionally used in other fossil vertebrates. Here, we reconstruct the body size of extinct crown group cetaceans (Neoceti) using different regression methods on extant skull and length data, in a phylogenetic context. Because most fossil cetaceans are fragmentary, we developed regression equations to predict total length based on cranial metrics that are preserved on most fossil crania. The resultant regression equations are based on a database of skull and length data from most extant lineages of cetaceans (n=45 species; 272 specimens), sampling all living mysticete genera and all major clades of odontocetes. In generating predictive equations, we compared both conventional species data regression and independent contrast regression methods, as well as single trait predictors and a new approach that combines the advantages of a partial least squares (PLS) multivariate regression with independent contrasts. This last approach leverages the predictive power of using multiple correlated proxies. Lastly, we used the rare occurrences of fossil cetaceans with preserved total lengths to test the performance of our predictive equations for reconstructing body size from skull measurements alone. Our results demonstrate that incorporating information about phylogenetic relationships and multiple cranial measures in PLS scaling studies increases the accuracy of reconstructed body size, most notably by reducing prediction intervals by more than 70%. With this empirical foundation, we highlight the outline of major features in the evolution of body size for Neoceti and future opportunities to use these metrics for paleobiological questions.

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Evolutionary Patterns in Cetacea Fishing Up Prey Size through Deep Time

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Big gulps require high drag for fin whale lunge feeding

Big gulps require high drag for fin whale lunge feeding

Extinctions in ancient and modern seas

Reconstructing Body Size in Extinct Crown Cetacea (Neoceti) Using Allometry, Phylogenetic Methods and Tests from the Fossil Record

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