It is through the study of fossil barnacles that are roughly 270,000 million years old that help track ancient whale migrations. University of California Berkeley doctoral student Larry Taylor, the lead author of the study, published March 25, 2019, in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published on some clever findings.
Taylor's research showed used fossil barnacles that hitched a ride on the backs of humpback and gray whales to reconstruct the migrations of whale populations millions of years ago.
The barnacles not only record details about the whales’ yearly travels but also retain this information after they become fossilized. By following this barnacle trail, Taylor et al. were able to reconstruct migration routes of whales from millions of years in the past.
Today, Humpback whales come from both the Southern Hemisphere (July to October with over 2,000 whales) and the Northern Hemisphere (December to March about 450 whales along Central America) to Panama (and Costa Rica). They undertake annual migrations from polar summer feeding grounds to winter calving and nursery grounds in subtropical and tropical coastal waters.
One surprise find is that the coast of Panama has been a meeting ground for humpback whales going back at least 270,000 years.
To see how the barnacles have travelled through the migration routes of ancient whales, the team used oxygen isotope ratios in barnacle shells and measured how they changed over time with ocean conditions. Did the whale migrate to warmer breeding grounds or colder feeding grounds? Barnacles retain this information even after they fall off the whale, sink to the ocean bottom, and become fossils. As a result, the travels of fossilized barnacles can serve as a proxy for the journeys of whales in the distant past.
Barnacles can play an important role in estimating paleo-water depths. The degree of disarticulation of fossils suggests the distance they have been transported, and since many species have narrow ranges of water depths, it can be assumed that the animals lived in shallow water and broke up as they were washed down-slope. The completeness of fossils, and nature of the damage, can thus be used to constrain the tectonic history of regions.
The barnacles not only record details about the whales’ yearly travels but also retain this information after they become fossilized. By following this barnacle trail, Taylor et al. were able to reconstruct migration routes of whales from millions of years in the past.
Today, Humpback whales come from both the Southern Hemisphere (July to October with over 2,000 whales) and the Northern Hemisphere (December to March about 450 whales along Central America) to Panama (and Costa Rica). They undertake annual migrations from polar summer feeding grounds to winter calving and nursery grounds in subtropical and tropical coastal waters.
One surprise find is that the coast of Panama has been a meeting ground for humpback whales going back at least 270,000 years.
To see how the barnacles have travelled through the migration routes of ancient whales, the team used oxygen isotope ratios in barnacle shells and measured how they changed over time with ocean conditions. Did the whale migrate to warmer breeding grounds or colder feeding grounds? Barnacles retain this information even after they fall off the whale, sink to the ocean bottom, and become fossils. As a result, the travels of fossilized barnacles can serve as a proxy for the journeys of whales in the distant past.
Barnacles can play an important role in estimating paleo-water depths. The degree of disarticulation of fossils suggests the distance they have been transported, and since many species have narrow ranges of water depths, it can be assumed that the animals lived in shallow water and broke up as they were washed down-slope. The completeness of fossils, and nature of the damage, can thus be used to constrain the tectonic history of regions.
In the Kwak̓wala language of the Kwakiutl or Kwakwaka'wakw, speakers of Kwak'wala, of the Pacific Northwest, barnacles are known as k̕wit̕a̱'a and broken barnacle shells are known as t̕sut̕su'ma.
