Marzanoptera bertae

Balaenoptera bertae is an extinct species of baleen whale that lived from 3.35 to 2.5 Mya during the Pliocene in the region of today's San Francisco Bay Area. Il held, also during the early to middle Neogene, a diverse assembly of cetaceans. Their fossilized remains were found in the Purisima Formation. The species Balaenoptera bertae was discovered in 2013.

Marzanoptera bertae

Apokryltaros · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MarzanopteraPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Balaenopteridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mysticeti
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mysticeti

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences7.4–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.4–3.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.2–3.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.333 Mya3.6 Mya7.7 Mya2.1 Mya

4 occurrences of Marzanoptera bertae on record, most of them in the Pliocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Purisima — 36.96°N, 121.96°WPurisima — 36.97°N, 121.95°WPurisima — 37.32°N, 122.40°WShinazawa — 38.69°N, 140.00°E

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The named rock units Marzanoptera bertae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Marzanoptera bertae and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Marzanoptera bertae and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

10 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Marzanoptera bertae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Marzanoptera bertae

Credit
Apokryltaros
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Marzanoptera bertae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMarzanoptera through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Boessenecker 2013)