Mummified and skeletal southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) from the Victoria Land Coast, Ross Sea, Antarctica
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Hall, Brenda L
de Bruyn, Mark
Hoelzel, A Rus
Baroni, Carlo
Salvatore, M Cristina
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Abstract
We report on an accumulation of mummified southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) from Inexpressible Island on the Victoria Land Coast (VLC), western Ross Sea, Antarctica. This accumulation is unusual, as elephant seals typically breed and molt on sub-Antarctic islands further north and do not currently occupy the VLC. Prior ancient DNA analyses revealed that these seals were part of a large, Antarctic breeding population that crashed ~1,000 yr ago. Radiocarbon dates for Inexpressible Island mummies range from 380 to 3,270 yr before present, too old to have been created by Scott's Northern Party in 1912 and varying too widely in age to represent a catastrophic death assemblage. Skeletal measurements reveal that most Inexpressible Island mummies are adult or subadult males. The presence of male elephant seals on Inexpressible Island until several hundred years ago suggests that, at a minimum, it served as a haul-out site for the large Antarctic population and may have hosted a breeding colony. The conditions that allowed this Antarctic population to use the Ross Sea, the factors spurring its decline, and the implications for the adaptability and sensitivity of the species to environmental change all merit further study.
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Marine Mammal Science
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35
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3
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© 2019 by the Society for Marine Mammalogy. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Mummified and skeletal southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) from the Victoria Land Coast, Ross Sea, Antarctica, Marine Mammal Science, 2019, 35 (3), pp. 934-956, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12581. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
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Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Marine & Freshwater Biology
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Mirounga leonina
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Koch, PL; Hall, BL; de Bruyn, M; Hoelzel, AR; Baroni, C; Salvatore, MC, Mummified and skeletal southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) from the Victoria Land Coast, Ross Sea, Antarctica, Marine Mammal Science, 2019, 35 (3), pp. 934-956