Coronula Research Articles

Paleontological Studies of Whale Barnacles in Taiwan Reveal New Cetacean Migration Routes in the Western Pacific Since the Miocene.

This paper reports a rediscovery of the first museum specimens of fossil whale barnacles from Taiwan. They are part of the material studied and figured by Ichiro Hayasaka in 1934. After examination of the material, which includes two cut-sections and one slice, the taxonomic assignment is revised to Coronula bifida Bronn, 1831. A petrographic study of the surrounding matrix shows that the matrix lacks slate and lithic fragments, indicating that the specimen was deposited in the pre-collision settings during the Miocene to early Pliocene. Figured specimens in Hatai's work in 1939 were examined for comparison. The distribution record of Coronula fossils shows that whales passed through the Taiwan Strait to Okinawa and moved northwards via the Pacific coast of Honshu or entered into the Sea of Japan. The fossil record in this region extends back to the upper Miocene in Yamagata prefecture (facing the Sea of Japan) and Boso Peninsula (facing the Pacific Ocean) in Honshu (~11.2 Ma-5.3 Ma). This is one of the oldest cetacean migration routes documented to date.

Accumulations of Fossils of the Whale Barnacle Coronula bifida Bronn, 1831 (Thoracica: Coronulidae) Provides Evidence of a Late Pliocene Cetacean Migration Route through the Straits of Taiwan.

John Stewart Buckeridge, Benny K.K. Chan, and Shih-Wei Lee (2018) This paper describes a remarkably prolific accumulation of the whale barnacle Coronula bifida Bronn, 1831 in sediments of late Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene age from central Taiwan. Extant Coronula is host-specific to baleen whales; as such, this accumulation of Coronula fossils represents a site where cetaceans congregated during the Plio-Pleistocene - perhaps for breeding. Although whale bones are found at the site, they are rare and fragmentary; the relatively robust shells of Coronula are thus a useful proxy for establishing ancient cetacean migration routes.

A revision of species of the genus Dicranotaenia (Cestoda: Hymenolepididae). II. New data on the type-specimens of Dicranotaenia sacciperium (Mayhew, 1925), D. macrostrobilodes (Mayhew, 1925) and D. introversa (Mayhew, 1925)

This second paper in a series on the revision of the type-specimens of “older” species of the genus Dicranotaenia Railliet, 1892 sensu Spassky & Spasskaya (1954) presents new information particularly on the measurements and configuration of cirrus and sacculus accessorius internus in D. sacciperium, D. macrostrobilodes and D. introversa. The type-material of the Dicranotaenia spp. studied, with the exception of D. sacciperium, has neither a protuberant cirrus nor a protuberant sacculus accessorius internus. The configuration of these organs, however, indicates that D. macrostrobilodes and D. introversa may be synonymous. To suggest their synonomy with D. coronula is, however, premature.