Dear Colleagues We are pleased to announce a new paper, reporting the earliest-known fin whale, *Balaenoptera physalus*, from the Early Pleistocene of California.
Tsai, C.-H., and R. W. Boessenecker. 2017. The earliest-known fin whale, *Balaenoptera physalus*, from the Early Pleistocene of Northern California, U.S.A. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2017.1306536. Summary We report a fossil tympanic bulla from the Rio Dell Formation of Northern California, USA. The morphology of tympanic bulla in baleen whales (Cetacea, Mysticeti) is highly diagnostic and this fossil is virtually identical to the extant fin whale *Balaenoptera physalus*. Given its geological age, early Pleistocene (~1.3–0.95 Ma), this specimen currently represents the oldest known fossil record of the extant fin whale. Accordingly, this find provides insight into the early evolution of the speciose *Balaenoptera*. The paper could be downloaded here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2017.1306536 or email me at: crani...@gmail.com; cheng-hsiu.t...@otago.ac.nz Regards Tsai -- 蔡政修（Cheng-Hsiu Tsai さい まさのぶ) JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow (JSPS: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 日本學術振興會) Department of Geology and Paleontology, National Museum of Nature and Science (Tsukuba Research Center) 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan Email: cheng-hsiu.t...@otago.ac.nz; crani...@gmail.com
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