Fossil brains provide evidence of underwater feeding in early seals

Pinnipeds (seals and related species) use their whiskers to explore their environment and locate their prey. Today they live mostly in marine habitats and are adapted for a highly specialised amphibious lifestyle with their flippers for locomotion and a hydrodynamically streamlined body. The earlies...

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Published inCommunications biology Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 747
Main Authors Lyras, George A., Werdelin, Lars, van der Geer, Bartholomeus G. M., van der Geer, Alexandra A. E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.08.2023
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects
631/158/856
631/158/857
631/181/414
631/378/1488
Biology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brain
Ecosystems and species history
Ekosystem och arthistoria
Evolution
Foraging behavior
Fossils
Freshwater environments
Habitats
Life Sciences
Lifestyles
Locomotion
Marine mammals
Pinnipedia
Potamotherium
Prey
Vibrissae
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Summary:Pinnipeds (seals and related species) use their whiskers to explore their environment and locate their prey. Today they live mostly in marine habitats and are adapted for a highly specialised amphibious lifestyle with their flippers for locomotion and a hydrodynamically streamlined body. The earliest pinnipeds, however, lived on land and in freshwater habitats, much like mustelids today. Here we reconstruct the underwater foraging behaviour of one of these earliest pinnipeds ( Potamotherium ), focusing in particular on how it used its whiskers (vibrissae). For this purpose, we analyse the coronal gyrus of the brain of 7 fossil and 31 extant carnivorans. This region receives somatosensory input from the head. Our results show that the reliance on whiskers in modern pinnipeds is an ancestral feature that favoured survival of stem pinnipeds in marine habitats. This study provides insights into an impressive ecological transition in carnivoran evolution: from terrestrial to amphibious marine species. Adaptations for underwater foraging were crucial for this transition. Analysis of the coronal gyrus from 7 fossil and 31 extant carnivorans suggests that one of the earliest pinnipeds, Potamotherium , may have relied on its whiskers when foraging.
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ISSN:2399-3642
2399-3642
DOI:10.1038/s42003-023-05135-z