Recent dating of extinct Atlantic gray whale fossils, (Eschrichtius robustus), Georgia Bight and Florida, western Atlantic Ocean

PeerJ

article

Ervan G. Garrison¹  Gary S. Morgan²  Krista McGrath³  Camilla Speller³  Alexander Cherkinsky⁵ 

[1] Geology, University of Georgia;New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science;University of York, BioArch Centre;Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia;Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia

关键词: Western Atlantic basin;    ZooMS;    Radiocarbon dating;    Paleontology;    Stable isotopes;    Gray whale;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.6381

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The Atlantic gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) presents an interesting case study of climate related dispersal and extinction. While (limited) fossil records confirm its presence in the Atlantic up until the 18th Century, its abundance and distribution within the Eastern and Western basins are still not well understood. The discovery of presumed gray whale fossil remains from the Georgia Bight and the Atlantic coast of Florida, from the mid-1980s to late-2000s, provides a new opportunity to recover additional data regarding their chronology within the Western basin. Here, we apply accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon techniques to six fossil whale finds, identifying dates within marine isotope stage 3 (59–24 ka) and the late Holocene, ∼2,000 yr BP. We additionally confirm the taxonomic identification of two fossil bone samples as E. robustus using collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS). The obtained dates, when combined with a larger corpus of previously published Atlantic gray whale fossil dates, support the hypothesis for the decline of the Atlantic gray whale in the late Pleistocene and the late Holocene. These new data augment the findings of the Eastern Atlantic Basin and better incorporate the Western Atlantic Basin into a pan-ocean understanding for the species.

【 授权许可】

CC BY