Both Sperm Whale Fossil Jaws Have Big Teeth the Better to Eat Big Prey

Summary: Both sperm whale fossil jaws at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History have big teeth for eating big prey, according to a Dec. 9 PLOS ONE article.

artist's concept of Albicetus oxymycterus: Alexandra Boersma, Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL), via EurekAlert!

Smithsonian scientists are renaming a sperm whale fossil with the famous nickname for the most infamous white whale in the world, according to an article published Dec. 9, 2015, in PLOS ONE.

The article in the open-access journal brings to public attention a fossil classified incorrectly and stored at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The 90-year-old misidentification came about through the sperm whale fossil’s similarity to the walrus genus and species Ontocetus emmonsi misleading Smithsonian scientist Remington Kellogg in 1925. The scientific reclassification from Ontocetus oxymycterus ("sharp-nosed walrus") to Albicetus oxymycterus ("sharp-nosed white whale") derives from re-examinations of the 14- to 16-million-year-old’s jaws, snout and teeth.

White whale emerges from Moby Dick’s nickname.

The high-seas adventure of Captain Ahab begrudging Moby Dick for his one-leggedness furnishes classic literature-lovers with the most famous natural history of the most infamous whale.

Nineteenth-century writer Herman Melville (Aug. 1, 1819–Sept. 28, 1891) gave the nickname white whale to Moby Dick, a marine mammal known as a sperm whale. A closed cavity in the whale’s head holds oil that candle, cosmetics and textile finishing industries value for its cetyl palmitate-rich, fatty, glistening, waxy, white spermaceti. Nicholas Pyenson, curator of the Smithsonian’s marine mammals, is unsure of original coloration.

He justifies the nomenclature since "While we don't know what its skin color in life actually looked like the color of the fossil is ashen white."

Modern 60-foot- (18.28-meter-) long sperm whales keep some of the features, but not the size, of ancient sperm whales, which measured 20 feet (6.09 meters) in length.

Scientists list living sperm whales under the binomial names Kogia breviceps, Kogia sima and Physeter macrocephalus, and with the toothed, not toothless, whales of the world. Alexandra Boersma, lead author and student researcher, mentions that the ancient sperm whale’s tooth-filled lower and upper jaws suggest larger prey than giant squid: “The biggest difference would be these really big, gnarly jaws full of these huge teeth. They were kind of comically huge in both their [Albicetus’] upper and lower jaw.”

Modern sperm whales need only lower jaws filled with teeth to capture squid.

The Kellogg notes offer C. A. Roe as the fossil collector sometime between 1879 and 1909, somewhere between Hope Ranch and the old Santa Barbara lighthouse.

Retrieving unexcavated fossilized parts from the banks promises to be difficult since Hope Ranch was purchased by Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876 and re-developed in 1923. A 100-meter (328.08-foot) radius qualifies as the search area since the new lighthouse is north of the old destroyed by the earthquake of Saturday, June 29, 1929. It remains questionable whether Albicetus’ unexcavated parts are accessible or extant 3.5 meters (11.48 feet) above high tide on 20-meter (65.62-foot) cliffs near the old lighthouse.

In the meantime, Albicetus suggests the reconstruction downloadable from Smithsonian’s X 3D website.

beak and lower jaws of 14-16 million year-old type fossil specimen of Albicetus oxymycterus: Jame di Loreto, Smithsonian, Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL), via EurekAlert!

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Albicetus oxymycterus: Alexandra Boersma, Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL), via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/104663.php

beak and lower jaws of 14-16 million year-old type fossil specimen of Albicetus oxymycterus: Jame di Loreto, Smithsonian, Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL), via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/104664.php?from=313513

For further information:

Boersma, Alexandra T. 9 December 2015. "Albicetus oxymycterus, a New Generic Name and Redescription of a Basal Physeteroid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California, and the Evolution of Body Size in Sperm Whales." PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135551
Available @ http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0135551

Herreria, Carla. 11 December 2015. "Newly Discovered Whale Species Named With A Nod To Moby Dick." The Huffington Post > Science. Updated 13 Dec. 2015.
Available @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/moby-dick-sperm-whale_5668c93be4b009377b23ccc1

NewsBeat Social. 10 December 2015. "Smithsonian Scientists Discover Whale Fossil in Archives." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcgTGqllk

PLOS. 9 December 2015. "Scientists discover 'white whale' fossil." EurekAlert! > Public Releases.
Available @ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/p-sd120415.php

Smithsonian @smithsonian. 9 December 2015. "Scientists @NMNH discover new white whale that swam #InTheHeartOfTheSea millions of yrs ago." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/smithsonian/status/674669017278390272

Tennant, Jon. 9 December 2015. "'White whale' is a ghost of sperm whales' past." PLOS Blogs > PLOS Paleo > Mammals.
Available @ http://blogs.plos.org/paleocomm/2015/12/09/white-whale-is-a-ghost-of-sperm-whales-past/