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New Protocetid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Late Middle Eocene Cook Mountain Formation of Louisiana

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New Protocetid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Late Middle Eocene Cook Mountain Formation of Louisiana Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology ISSN: 0272-4634 (Print) 1937-2809 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujvp20 New protocetid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the late middle Eocene Cook Mountain Formation of Louisiana Mark D. Uhen To cite this article: Mark D. Uhen (1998) New protocetid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the late middle Eocene Cook Mountain Formation of Louisiana, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 18:3, 664-668, DOI: 10.1080/02724634.1998.10011093 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1998.10011093 Published online: 24 Aug 2010. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 69 View related articles Citing articles: 2 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ujvp20 Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(3):664-668, September 1998 © 1998 by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology NOTE NEW PROTOCETID (MAMMALIA, CETACEA) FROM THE LATE MIDDLE EOCENE COOK MO UNTAIN FORMATION OF LOUISIANA MARK D. UHEN, Cranb rook Institute of Scie nce, Bloomfi eld Hills, Michiga n 48303-0801 A frag mentary specimen of an archaeocete whale was discovered and Age-The Cook Mountain Formation is early Bartonian (middle Eo­ co llec ted from the Cook Mountain Formation by P. H. Jones in 194 3 cene) in age (Dockery, 1996), and the Milams Member is in the lower dur ing a gro und water survey south of the city of Natchitoches, Loui­ part of the formation (Huner, 1939). Foraminifera from the foss il lo­ siana (Maher and Jones, 1949; P. H. Jones, pers. comm.). Th e Coo k ca lity identifi ed by H. V. Howe and listed in Maher and Jone s ( 1949) Mountain Formation is compose d of a series of marine sands and cla ys. include Globigerina mexicana, which is now considered to be a junior In part icul ar, the Milam s Member of the Cook Mountain Formation synonym of Orbulin oides beckmanni (Loeblich and Tapp an , 1988); this inclu des calcareo us glauconitic shales, lignitic shales, and marl ; color places the age of the cetacean in Plankt onic Foraminiferal Zo ne P 13. ranges from gray-green to brown-red (Huner, 1939) . Most of the bones Description-Fou r vertebrae of Natchitoc hia are identified as tho­ are dark on both the surface and the inter ior, but a few are pale on the racic vert ebrae based on the presence of rib articular surfaces. It is surface and dark on the interior ; many of the vertebrae have marl y unclear how man y thoracic vertebrae we re present in Na tchitochia, and " plugs" that form cas ts of the neural ca nals. it is also unclear whether the four thoracic vertebrae recovered are con­ The discover y of the speci men was first noted in a water-supply paper sec utive vertebrae. For these reasons, they will be referred to as Ta to dealing with the Natchitoches area (Ma her and Jones, 1949). Th e spec­ Td where Ta is anterior and Td is posterior. Measurement s of all the imen was sent to the United States Natio nal Museum where it was vertebrae are listed in Tabl e I. accessioned as USN M 16805 , and iden tified by Remington Kellogg as The four thoracic vertebrae are arra nged from anterior to posterior a new archaeocete whale (Maher and Jones, 1949), but never described . based on the positions of the rib articular surfaces. In Natchitochia and The specime n was discussed by Uhen ( 1996) , but it was not named in other archaeocetes, the facet for the rib tuberculum is on the transverse that abs tract. It is here described in more detail and given the name process of eac h verte bra , whereas the facet for the rib capitulum is on Natchitochia jo nesi. the anterola teral surface of the cen trum. In more anterior thoracics, the Abbreviations- NHML, The Natu ral Histor y Museum, Lo ndo n; two artic ular surfaces are well separated, with the transverse process GMUI Department of Geology Mu seum, University of Ibadan, Nigeria; arising from the dorsal border of the pedi cle of the neural arc h, while GSM, Georgia Southern Museum, Sta tesboro; GSP-UM, Geological in more posterior thoracic vertebrae, the transverse process arises from Survey of Pakistan -University of Mich igan Museum of Paleont ology, the lateral side of the centru m and the two rib face ts merge into a single Ann Arbor; SMNS, Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde, Stuttgart ; artic ular surface . Ta and Tb have we ll-se parated rib facets, wh ile in Tc USNM, Unit ed States National Museum of Natura l Histor y, Washing­ they are separated by a narrow fissure, and in Td they are mostly sep­ ton , DC. arate, but touch eac h other directl y at one point. The rib facets, as we ll as the anterio r and posterior faces of the neural spine bases, are some­ SYSTEMATIC PAL EONTOLOGY what irreg ular ly form ed. Mirorder CETE Linnaeus, 1758 Order CETACEA Brisson , 1762 Sub order ARCH AEOCETI Flower, 1883 Famil y PROTOCETIDAE Stro mer, 1908 Sub famil y PROTOCETI NAE (Stro mer, 1908) • SHREVEPORT NATCHlTOCHIA. gen. nov. EtymoIogy- Natchitochia. in refere nce to the type local ity, near the city of Natch itoches. Diagnosis- As for the type and only species. NATCHlTOCHIA JONESI. sp . nov. ALEXANDRIA' Etymology-The specific epithet is in honor of Paul H. Jo nes, who Protocetid locality discovered the holotype. Holotype-USNM 16805, three incomplete ribs and 13 verte brae, includi ng four anterior thoracics, five lumbars, one sacral, two cauda ls, and one of questionabl e position . BATON Diagnosis-Significantl y larger than most other protocetines, with ROUGE the exceptio n of Eocetus schweinfurthi and Pappocetus lugardi ; verte­ NEW brae are smaller than those of Eocetus and lack elongation of the lumbar LAKE CHARLES ORLEANS. ce ntra; vertebrae lack the ventra l keel see n in those verte brae ass igned to Pappocetus; ribs are sma ller and more grac ile than those of Pappo­ cetus. Horizon and Locality-The speci men was collec ted in a road cut along Louisiana state highway 478, in sec tio n 10, T. 8 N., R. 7 W., Natch itoche s South Quadrangle (7.5 minut e series) , south of Natchi ­ toches, Natch itoch es Pari sh, Louisiana (Fig. I; Maher and Jone s, 1949; P. H. Jone s, pers. comm.) . It was recovered from the Mil ams Memb er FIGURE 1. Map of Loui sian a showing the locality of the holotype of of the Cook Mountain Formation . Natchitochia jon esi. 664 Published online 24 Aug 2010 NOTES 665 TABLE I. Measurements of vertebral centra of Narchitochia jonesi Measurements are in millimeters. A dash indicates that the measurement could not be taken due to breakage. T is for thoracic. L is for lumbar. S is for sacral. and Ca is for caudal. Ta Tb Tc Td La Lb Lc Ld Le S Caa Cab Centrum length 50 .1 51.7 53.3 54.1 54.6 57 .8 60 .2 68.4 72.6 77.9 81.2 86.4 Centrum width 72.1 76.2 83.9 86.7 89.2 89.4 90 .2 92.0 99 .2 99 .3 93 .9 Centrum height 55.2 54.3 55 .3 57 .8 - 63 -64 68 .0 - 64 -66 70.1 FIGURE 2. Natchitochia jonesi thoracic vertebra a in A. anterior view and B. posterior view. Scale is in centimeters. Note the heart-shaped centrum and dorsally placed rib articular facet. FIGURE 3. Narchitochia jon esi lumbar vertebrae a--e in lateral view . Scale is in centimeters. Note the very large and almost vertically oriented pre- and postzygapophyses. 666 JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY, VOL. 18, NO. 3,1998 FIGURE 5. Natchitochia jonesi sacral vertebra in left lateral view . Scale is in centimeters and is in the plane of the auricular surface. Note the large . roughly-textured auricular surface. lumbar vertebrae increase in size from anterior to posterior in all di­ mension s. The lumbar vertebrae recovered appear to form a continuous series and are referred to here as La to Le . La has somewhat irregularly formed transverse processes. and it is difficult to be certain that it is an anterior lumbar rather than a posterior thoracic vertebra. The transverse processes on the other lumbar verte ­ brae are mostly broken. but where present. the distal end s are thin. and they lack rib articular surfaces. The anterior and posterior faces of the centra of the lumbar vertebrae are kidney-shaped. and the centra are moderately spool-shaped. The pre- and postzygapophyses are large and steeply inclined toward the midline. The cranial and caud al ends of the centra are concave. The bases of the neural spines are robu st. but all of the neural spin es are broken. so their lengths cannot be determined. A single vertebra from Natchitochia is identified as a sacral vertebra based on the presence of large auricular surfaces on the distal ends of the tran sverse processes (Fig . 4). The left transverse process is almost FIGURE 4. Natchitochia jonesi sacral vertebra in A, dorsal view. B. complete. while the right transverse process is broken, with only the anterior view, and C, posterior view . Anterior is up in A. Scale is in distal part remaining (not figured). The entire neural arch is miss ing. ce ntimeters. Note the size and shape of the centrum as well as the size The centrum is wid e relative to its length and height when compared and orientation of the transverse process.
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