Tjörnes Peninsula (Pliocene of Iceland)

Where: Iceland (66.1° N, 17.3° W: paleocoordinates 66.1° N, 17.2° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Tjörnes Formation, Zanclean (5.3 - 3.6 Ma)

• we can only constrain the fossil between the oldest and youngest available estimates for the age of the middle of the Mactra Zone. The minimum estimate (Einarsson et al. 1967; Albertsson 1978) for the age of these beds is 3.4 Ma, and the maximum is 4.63 Ma (Verhoeven et al. 2011). As such, we can conclude that the fossil whale IMNH 9598 (cf. Eubalaena) dates to the early Pliocene (4.63–3.4Ma, Zanclean–Piacenzian).

Environment/lithology: marine; sandstone

• The Tjörnes beds comprise approximately 500 m of fossiliferous siliciclastic sediments, which are primarily made up of marine sandstones, with intermittent terrestrial/estuarine lignite beds and muddy sandstones (Buchardt & Símonarson 2003). Bardarson (1925) grouped this sequence into three biozones on the basis of their most abundant mollusc fossils; from oldest to youngest, these are the Tapes Zone, the Mactra Zone, and the Serripes Zone. The whale fossil described here derives from the middle of the Mactra Zone (Fig. 1).

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: R. Racicot, D. Field, A. Behlke and J. Gauthier. 2011. The first major vertebrate fossil from the Plocene of Iceland: an odontocete (Cetacea: Odontoceti) from the Tjornes Formation. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts:177 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 120144: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 08.11.2011

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Cetacea - Balaenidae
cf. Eubalaena sp. Gray 1864 right whale