A close relative of the Amazon river dolphin in marine deposits: a new Iniidae from the late Miocene of Angola
Lambert, O.; Auclair, C.; Cauxeiro, C.; Lopez, M.; Adnet, S. (2018). A close relative of the Amazon river dolphin in marine deposits: a new Iniidae from the late Miocene of Angola. PeerJ 6: 33. https://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5556 In: PeerJ. PeerJ: Corte Madera & London. e-ISSN 2167-8359, more |   |
| Keywords | Cetacea [WoRMS]; Inia geoffrensis (de Blainville, 1817) [WoRMS]; Iniidae Gray, 1846 [WoRMS]
Marine/Coastal; Fresh water | | Author keywords | Cetacea; Inioidea; Iniidae; Angola; late Miocene; Kwanza basin; Amazonriver dolphin |
| Authors | | Top | - Lambert, O., more
- Auclair, C.
- Cauxeiro, C.
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| Abstract | A few odontocetes (echolocating toothed cetaceans) have been able to independently colonize freshwater ecosystems. Although some extant species of delphinids (true dolphins) and phocoenids (porpoises) at least occasionally migrate upstream of large river systems, they have close relatives in fully marine regions. This contrasts with the three odontocete families only containing extant species with a strictly freshwater habitat (Iniidae in South America, the recently extinct Lipotidae in China, and Platanistidae in southeast Asia). Among those, the fossil record of Iniidae includes taxa from freshwater deposits of South America, partly overlapping geographically with the extant Amazon river dolphin Inia geoffrensis, whereas a few marine species from the Americas were only tentatively referred to the family, leaving the transition from a marine to freshwater environment poorly understood. |
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