Foss. Rec., 20, 259–278, 2017 https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-20-259-2017 © Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Koristocetus pescei gen. et sp. nov., a diminutive sperm whale (Cetacea: Odontoceti: Kogiidae) from the late Miocene of Peru Alberto Collareta1,2, Olivier Lambert3, Christian de Muizon4, Mario Urbina5, and Giovanni Bianucci1 1Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, via Santa Maria 53, 56126 Pisa, Italy 2Dottorato Regionale in Scienze della Terra Pegaso, Università di Pisa, via Santa Maria 53, 56126 Pisa, Italy 3Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, D.O. Terre et Histoire de la Vie, rue Vautier 29, 1000 Brussels, Belgium 4Département Origines et Évolution, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Centre de Recherches sur la paléobiodiversité et les paléoenvironnements – CR2P (CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, Sorbonne Université), rue Buffon 8, 75005 Paris, France 5Departamento de Paleontologia de Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, avenida Arenales 1256, Lima 14, Peru Correspondence to: Alberto Collareta (
[email protected]) Received: 7 August 2017 – Accepted: 30 October 2017 – Published: 7 December 2017 Abstract. Among odontocetes, members of the family Kogi- habits in fossil kogiids, thus suggesting that our comprehen- idae (pygmy and dwarf sperm whales) are known as small- sion of the evolutionary history of pygmy and dwarf sperm sized and in many respects enigmatic relatives of the great whales is still far from being exhaustive. sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus. Most of the still scanty fossil record of Kogiidae is represented by isolated skulls and ear bones from Neogene deposits of the North- ern Hemisphere, with the significant exception of Scaphoko- 1 Introduction gia, a highly autapomorphic genus from late Miocene de- posits of the Pisco Formation exposed along the southern Among extant odontocetes, members of the currently coast of Peru.