Barnes LG

Introduction Desmostylia is a clade of extinct aquatic mammals with no living members (Repenning, 1965; Inuzuka, 1984; Inuzuka, 2000b; Inuzuka, 2000c; Domning, 2002; Gingerich, 2005). The phylogenetic affinities of the clade among mammals are still debated, having been hypothesized as belonging to Afrotheria (Domning, Ray & McKenna, 1986), Perissodactyla (Cooper et al., 2014; Rose et al., 2014) or Paenungulatomorpha (Gheerbrant, Filippo & Schmitt, 2016), due to their specialized morphology (Fig.

Introduction Recent studies have suggested that changes in species distribution during the Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene transition were caused both by habitat tracking as well as by extirpation of populations outside of isolated habitat refugia (Dalén et al., 2007; De Bruyn et al., 2011; Hofreiter et al., 2004; Hofreiter, 2008; Hofreiter & Stewart, 2009; Stewart, 2009).

Differs from Eubalaena (except Eubalaena shinshuensis ) in having the supraorbital process of the frontal gradually sloping away ventrolaterally from the skull vertex, posteriorly oriented postorbital process, orbit positioned at half of the vertical distance between the vertex and the ventral surface of the postglenoid process, thicker orbital rim with a flat lateral surface, zygomatic process of squamosal anteroventrally deflected, ventrally oriented postglenoid process, foramen pseudovale...