''Miocaperea'' is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

pygmy right whale The pygmy right whale (''Caperea marginata'') is a species of baleen whale. It may be a member of the cetotheres, a family of baleen whales which until 2012 were thought to be extinct; ''C. marginata'' has otherwise been considered the sole m ...

from the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

Pisco Formation The Pisco Formation is a geologic formation located in Peru, on the southern coastal desert of Ica, Peru, Ica and Arequipa. The approximately thick formation was deposited in the Pisco Basin, spanning an age from the Miocene, Late Miocene up to t ...

of Peru.''Miocaperea''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...

.org Its type species is ''Miocaperea pulchra''.

Evolution and significance

The discovery of ''Miocaperea'' is significant, because neobalaenines were previously unknown in the fossil record, except for an isolated petrosal (ear bone) from late Miocene-aged deposits in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. A previous study placed the divergence date of Neobalaeninae from other

mysticetes Baleen whales (), also known as whalebone whales, are marine mammals of the parvorder Mysticeti in the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises), which use baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their mouths to sieve plankton from the water ...

at about 23 million years,Sasaki T, Nikaido M, Hamilton H et al. (2005) Mitochondrial phylogenetics and evolution of mysticete whales. Systematic Biology 54(1): 77–90. and the age of ''Miocaperea'' lends credence to the notion of an origin for Neobalaeninae deep in the early Miocene.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15708539 Cetotheriidae Miocene cetaceans Miocene mammals of South America Neogene Peru Fossils of Peru Pisco Formation Fossil taxa described in 2012