A new pliocene dolphin (Cetacea: Pontoporiidae), from the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina

Abstract

With only a single extant species, Pontoporia blainvillei, Pon toporiidae is a relict group that is presently restricted to Atlantic coastal waters of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina (Crespo, 2002). The extinct diversity of this family is much greater, with at least 6 named species, and possibly more if the long-snouted genus Parapontoporia is included (see Barnes, 1985; Godfrey and Barnes, 2008). Extinct taxa are known from the east and west coasts of South America (Burmeister, 1885; Muizon, 1984, 1988a), the East Coast of North America (Morgan, 1994; Godfrey and Barnes, 2008), and the North Sea Basin of the Eastern Atlantic (Lambert and Post, 2005; Pyenson and Hoch, 2007). Both morphological (e.g. Muizon, 1988b; Geisler and San ders, 2003) and molecular data (e.g. Cassens et al, 2000; Nikaido et al, 2001) support the Amazonian River Dolphin Inia geoffren sis as the closest extant taxon to Pontoporia; together these taxa have been placed in the Superfamily Inioidea. While the distribu tions of extant taxa of Inioidea do not hint at the former wider