Abstract

A new long-snouted homodont odontocete fossil from the Lower Miocene of Austria (ca. 22.5–22.0 Ma) is formally described and interpreted based on external skull characteristics supplemented by CT and μCT data. The specimen was found in deposits from the Central Paratethys and includes an incomplete and fragmented cranium and mandible as well as ear bones. It differs markedly from previously identified long-snouted archaic dolphins with single-rooted, homodont dentition, and thus is suggestive of a new taxon, for which the name Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki gen.
et sp. nov. is proposed. The geological context of R. pollerspoecki hints at a neritic habitat in close vicinity to estuarine environments. Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki shares key features with certain members of the so-called ‘Chilcacetus clade’ such as the widening of the premaxillae at the rostrum base and the absence of a deep lateral groove along the rostrum; however, a phylogenetic analysis
reconstructs R. pollerspoecki in a polytomy with members of this ‘clade’ and a larger clade including many other taxa. To better understand the phylogenetic relationships of these taxa, comprehensive
reexamination of Argryocetus and Macrodelphinus will be necessary. Measurements obtained through μCT-based internal anatomical reconstruction of the bony labyrinth indicate that R. pollerspoecki had the ability to hear specialized high-frequency signals similar to modern narrow-band high-frequency (NBHF) specialists. This work further identifies several extinct platanistoids as hearing within the NBHF spectrum, increasing the understanding of the diversity of ecological adaptations in early-diverging odontocetes and providing more examples of convergent evolution of this hearing type.