Articles | Volume 24, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-77-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-77-2021
Research article
 | 
07 Apr 2021
Research article |  | 07 Apr 2021

A new delphinid from the lower Pliocene of the North Sea and the early radiations of true dolphins

Alice Belluzzo and Olivier Lambert

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Cited articles

Aguirre-Fernández, G., Barnes, L. G., Aranda-Manteca, F. J., and Fernández-Rivera, J. R.: Protoglobicephala mexicana, a new genus and species of Pliocene fossil dolphin (Cetacea; Odontoceti; Delphinidae) from the Gulf of California, Mexico, Bol. Soc. Geol. Mexicana, 61, 245–265, 2009. 
Arnold, P., and Heinsohn, G.: Phylogenetic status of the Irrawady dolphin Orcaella brevirostris (Owen, in Gray): a cladistic analysis, Mem. Queensland Mus., 39, 141–204, 1996. 
Barnes, L. G.: Outline of eastern North Pacific fossil cetacean assemblages, Syst. Zool., 25, 321–343, 1976. 
Barnes, L. G.: Miocene and Pliocene Albireonidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti), rare and unusual fossil dolphins from the eastern North Pacific Ocean, Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles County Sci. Series, 41, 99–152, 2008. 
Bianucci, G.: The Odontoceti (Mammalia Cetacea) from Italian Pliocene. Systematics and phylogenesis of Delphinidae, Palaeontographia Italica, 83, 73–167, 1996. 
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Short summary
Whereas true dolphins (Delphinidae) are the most diversified family of cetaceans today, their evolutionary history remains poorly known due to a relatively patchy fossil record. Based on a fossil skull discovered in early Pliocene (5 to 4.4 million years ago) marine sediments from Antwerp (Belgium), we describe here a new genus and species of small dolphin, Pliodelphis doelensis. This is the first delphinid species to be recorded from the early Pliocene in the North Sea.