Abstract
Abstract. The Miocene mica clay locality of Groß Pampau, known for numerous and partly spectacular finds of marine mammals is becoming more and more a prominent site that bears the potential to resolve questions regarding taphonomic relationships and to interpret life communities of the ancient North Sea because of its rich faunal assemblage including invertebrates and other remains of various vertebrate organisms. In the present work we describe a right periotic of Physeteroidea with morphological characters so far unknown from other sperm whales. The periotics of the middle Miocene Aulophyseter morricei demonstrate the closest resemblance to the Groß Pampau specimen in their overall appearance and in the general arrangement and proportions of single structures, particularly of the anterior process and pars cochlearis. A great similarity is also documented with periotics of the living sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, especially regarding the shape and disposition of the anterior process and the bony element located dorsally to the accessory ossicle. Kogiid periotics differ strongly from that of the Groß Pampau specimen by having an inflated and short anterior process and, typically, three well-defined spines on it. A new taxonomic naming of the Groß Pampau periotic is not appropriate at this stage, although it might demonstrate the existence of a so-far undescribed physeteroid species. Additionally, its systematic position remains yet unclear and it is unknown at this point if it could belong to Hoplocetus ritzi, another physeterid, whose fragments were discovered in the same locality, or to another, already-described taxon, of which the periotic is still unknown.
Highlights
A well-preserved but incomplete physeteroid periotic was recovered in May 2014 from the late Miocene mica clay deposits in a volume of clay of about 1 m3 in the eastern part of the commercial gravel pit of the Kieswerke Ohle & Lau company, located near the village Groß Pampau in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany
A fossa is present in Acrophyseter, A. morricei, and O. crocodilinus, while a process can be found in B. shigensis, P. macrocephalus, and the Groß Pampau periotic (Kellogg, 1927, 1965; Yamada, 1953; Kimura et al, 2006; Lambert et al, 2016)
The odontocete ear bones bear a high degree of morphological variability, all characters of the tympanoperiotic complex are derived from an ancestral type (Kasuya, 1973)
Summary
A well-preserved but incomplete physeteroid periotic was recovered in May 2014 from the late Miocene mica clay deposits in a volume of clay of about 1 m3 in the eastern part of the commercial gravel pit of the Kieswerke Ohle & Lau company (dot number 8 in Fig. 1), located near the village Groß Pampau in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. Hampe (2006) described Hoplocetus ritzi, a new hoplocetine physeterid from Groß Pampau This and specimens that are no longer verifiable (whereabouts unknown) of Scaldicetus (Abel, 1905; Gripp, 1964) are so far the only fossil remains of physeteroids found in northern Germany. Ketten, 1992, 2000; Luo and Eastman, 1995; Luo and Marsh, 1996; Nummela et al, 2007; Gutstein et al, 2014), with relatively large morphological variability between taxa This variability in morphological characters and dimensions is often used in the identification of the taxonomic family, genus, and even species of Odontoceti, with preserved ear bones (Yamada, 1953; Kasuya, 1973). We analyse morphological characteristics that attribute the Groß Pampau periotic to the Physeteroidea yet notably distinguish it from all hitherto-described physeteroid periotic bones, suggesting the existence of an undescribed species with a so-far uncertain position in the physeteroid phylogeny
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