HISTORY OF WHALES 



3i 



GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL 

 DISTRIBUTION 



The difficulties that beset one who is 

 engaged in a study of whales, past and 

 present, are in no small measure due to the 

 practically world wide distribution of 

 these pelagic mammals during the Tertiary 

 period and the consequent lack of ade- 

 qate material from many parts of their 

 range. Not so many years ago the scope 

 of our geographic knowledge of fossil 

 whales was confined to Europe and North 

 America, but it has been slowly extended 

 until it now includes portions of Africa, 

 South America, Seymour Island in the 

 Antarctic, Australia, New Zealand, and 

 Japan. No remains of fossil whales have 

 as yet been described from continental 

 Asia, nor from the numerous islands which 

 dot the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian 

 oceans. The imperfection of the geologi- 

 cal record is an accepted fact, but probably 

 our knowledge of the past history of the 

 whales would present fewer gaps had a 

 concerted effort been made to assemble 

 systematically collections of fossil pelagic 

 mammals. Marine formations that are 

 known to contain remains of fossil pelagic 

 mammals occur on nearly all continental 

 masses with the exception of Asia. If 

 modern methods of collection and preser- 

 vation of specimens were applied, many of 

 these marine formations should yield 

 material which would throw additional 

 light on the evolution of this interesting 

 group. 



Search for remains of fossil whales has 

 never been prosecuted with the same en- 

 ergy and zeal as for many other orders of 

 vertebrates, and a large number of the 

 forms now known are based on material 

 obtained from thirty to one hundred years 

 ago. Owners of quarries, brick works, 

 marl pits, and diatomaceous deposits have 



contributed to interested scientists a large 

 part of the fossil whales that have been 

 mentioned in scientific periodicals during 

 the past century. Purely fortuitous cir- 

 cumstances, however, have resulted in the 

 acquisition of some rather large and im- 

 portant collections. When the fortifica- 

 tions of Antwerp were under construction, 

 in the years 1861 to 1863, hundreds of 

 whale skeletons were found in the exca- 

 vations, and many of them are preserved 

 in the Royal Museum of Natural History 

 at Brussels. As early as 1868 interested 

 officials and employees of the fertilizer 

 companies exploiting the so-called Ashley 

 phosphate deposits of South Carolina 

 noted the extraordinary variety and pro- 

 fusion of fossil remains of vertebrated 

 animals that were brought to light in the 

 course of their operations. Specimens 

 were preserved in company offices and in 

 the homes of interested citizens. In time 

 important collections were built up, and 

 many of these found their way into insti- 

 tutions and museums, where they have 

 been carefully preserved for their scientific 

 value. 



Geologically and geographically whales 

 have had a long and widespread range. 

 Some of the living cetaceans are great 

 travellers and apparently wander from one 

 shore to another in the course of their 

 migrations, while others exhibit decided 

 preferences for limited oceanic areas . The 

 extent of the migrations of whales is 

 largely a matter of conjecture, but the 

 evidence points to the conclusion that 

 some species travel from the South Pacific 

 to the North Pacific and vice versa. Sei 

 whales have been taken in Japanese waters 

 with ectoparasites of South Pacific origin 

 (Andrews, 1916). In the Atlantic ocean 

 conditions are similar. Information from 

 other sources indicates that whales pass 

 from one ocean to another around Cape 



