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The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology

The white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is the main top predator of the present-day Mediterranean Sea. The deep past of C. carcharias in the Mediterranean is witnessed by a rather conspicuous, mostly Pliocene fossil record. Here, we provide a synthesis of the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of the...

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Autores principales: Collareta, Alberto, Casati, Simone, Di Cencio, Andrea, Bianucci, Giovanni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10608139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37895466
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13102085
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author Collareta, Alberto
Casati, Simone
Di Cencio, Andrea
Bianucci, Giovanni
author_facet Collareta, Alberto
Casati, Simone
Di Cencio, Andrea
Bianucci, Giovanni
author_sort Collareta, Alberto
collection PubMed
description The white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is the main top predator of the present-day Mediterranean Sea. The deep past of C. carcharias in the Mediterranean is witnessed by a rather conspicuous, mostly Pliocene fossil record. Here, we provide a synthesis of the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of the Mediterranean white sharks. Phenetically modern white shark teeth first appeared around the Miocene–Pliocene transition in the Pacific, and soon after in the Mediterranean. Molecular phylogenetic analyses support an origin of the Mediterranean white shark population from the dispersal of Australian/Pacific palaeopopulations, which may have occurred through the Central American Seaway. Tooth dimensions suggest that the Mediterranean white sharks could have grown up to about 7 m total length during the Pliocene. A richer-than-today marine mammal fauna was likely pivotal in supporting the Mediterranean white sharks through the Pliocene and most of the Quaternary. White sharks have seemingly become more common as other macropredators declined and disappeared, notwithstanding the concurrent demise of many potential prey items in the context of the latest Pliocene and Quaternary climatic and environmental perturbations of the Mediterranean region. The overall generalist trophic habits of C. carcharias were likely crucial for securing ecological success in the highly variable Mediterranean scenario by allowing the transition to a mostly piscivorous diet as the regional marine mammal fauna shrank.
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spelling pubmed-106081392023-10-28 The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology Collareta, Alberto Casati, Simone Di Cencio, Andrea Bianucci, Giovanni Life (Basel) Review The white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is the main top predator of the present-day Mediterranean Sea. The deep past of C. carcharias in the Mediterranean is witnessed by a rather conspicuous, mostly Pliocene fossil record. Here, we provide a synthesis of the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of the Mediterranean white sharks. Phenetically modern white shark teeth first appeared around the Miocene–Pliocene transition in the Pacific, and soon after in the Mediterranean. Molecular phylogenetic analyses support an origin of the Mediterranean white shark population from the dispersal of Australian/Pacific palaeopopulations, which may have occurred through the Central American Seaway. Tooth dimensions suggest that the Mediterranean white sharks could have grown up to about 7 m total length during the Pliocene. A richer-than-today marine mammal fauna was likely pivotal in supporting the Mediterranean white sharks through the Pliocene and most of the Quaternary. White sharks have seemingly become more common as other macropredators declined and disappeared, notwithstanding the concurrent demise of many potential prey items in the context of the latest Pliocene and Quaternary climatic and environmental perturbations of the Mediterranean region. The overall generalist trophic habits of C. carcharias were likely crucial for securing ecological success in the highly variable Mediterranean scenario by allowing the transition to a mostly piscivorous diet as the regional marine mammal fauna shrank. MDPI 2023-10-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10608139/ /pubmed/37895466 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13102085 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Collareta, Alberto
Casati, Simone
Di Cencio, Andrea
Bianucci, Giovanni
The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology
title The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology
title_full The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology
title_fullStr The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology
title_full_unstemmed The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology
title_short The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology
title_sort deep past of the white shark, carcharodon carcharias, in the mediterranean sea: a synthesis of its palaeobiology and palaeoecology
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10608139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37895466
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13102085
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