Vol. 57, 2018

(update: 2018.11.02; 12.03) 

Accumulations of Fossils of the Whale Barnacle Coronula bifida Bronn, 1831 (Thoracica: Coronulidae) Provides Evidence of a Late Pliocene Cetacean Migration Route through the Straits of Taiwan

John Stewart Buckeridge¹, Benny K.K. Chan², and Shih-Wei Lee^3,*

¹Marine & Geological Systems Group, RMIT, Australia. E-mail: john.buckeridge@rmit.edu.au
²Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. E-mail: chankk@gate.sinica.edu.tw
³National Museum of Marine Science & Technology, Keelung, Taiwan

(Received 19 September 2018; Accepted 11 October 2018; Communicated by Yoko Nozawa)

John Stewart Buckeridge, Benny K.K. Chan, and Shih-Wei Lee (2018) This paper describes a remarkably prolific accumulation of the whale barnacle Coronula bifida Bronn, 1831 in sediments of late Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene age from central Taiwan. Extant Coronula is host-specific to baleen whales; as such, this accumulation of Coronula fossils represents a site where cetaceans congregated during the Plio-Pleistocene - perhaps for breeding. Although whale bones are found at the site, they are rare and fragmentary; the relatively robust shells of Coronula are thus a useful proxy for establishing ancient cetacean migration routes.

Key words: Coronula bifida, Whale barnacles, Plio-Pleistocene, Fossil, Taiwan.

*Correspondence: E-mail: leesw@mail.nmmst.gov.tw

Supplementary Materials: Table S1