The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology - PubMed (original) (raw)

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

Alberto Collareta et al. Life (Basel). 2023.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Elasmobranchii; Lamnidae; Pleistocene; Pliocene; Quaternary; conservation palaeobiology; fossil record; palaeoichthyology; vertebrate palaeontology; white pointer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 5

Additional taphonomic evidence for the trophic ecology of the Mediterranean white sharks in Pliocene times. (A,B) Skeleton of Balaena sp. from the Pliocene deposits of Poggio Tagliato (Tuscany, central Italy); close-ups of the disarticulated right forelimb (A), and detail thereof showing an associated white shark tooth (indicated by a white arrow) (B). (C,D) Fragmentary cetacean rib from the Pliocene deposits of Buca della Balena (Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy) displaying bite marks attributed to Carcharodon carcharias, including characteristically serrated grooves (C) and scrapes (D). (C,D) modified after Freschi and Cau ([63]: Figures 5 and 6).

Figure 6

Reconstructed trophic interactions between Carcharodon carcharias and other marine vertebrates in the Pliocene (A) and present-day (B) Mediterranean Sea. Silhouette codes are as follows: a, fishes; b, turtles; c, birds; d, seals; e, sirenians; f, delphinoids (including, in Pliocene times, phocoenids and monodontids besides delphinids); g, kogiids; h, ziphiids; i, small-sized plicogulans (sensu [69]); j, small-sized balaenids; k, large-sized plicogulans; l, large-sized balaenids; m, physeterids. Solid arrows indicate trophic interactions that are supported by taphonomic evidence, stomach content analyses and/or direct observations of feeding actions. Dashed arrows indicate hypothetical trophic interactions for which evidence is currently wanting. See the main text for the palaeontological data source; neontological data after Boldrocchi et al. [5]. Both panels modified after Bianucci et al. [11].

Figure 1

Pliocene fossils of Carcharodon carcharias from the Mediterranean Basin. (A) Two teeth from the “Tuscan hills” (Tuscany, central Italy), stored in the Collezione di Geologia “Museo Giovanni Capellini” (=MGGC, Bologna), with their original supporting tablet and historical label. (B) Tooth from Peccioli (Tuscany), stored in the Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Pisa (=MSNUP, Calci). (C) Tooth from Orciano Pisano (Tuscany), stored in the Museo Geopaleontologico Scienze della Terra del “Gruppo AVIS Mineralogia e Paleontologia Scandicci” (=GAMPS, Badia a Settimo, Scandicci). (D) Tooth from Peccioli, stored in the MSNUP. (E) Tooth from the surroundings of Piacenza (Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy), stored in the MSNUP. Specimen codes are as follows: “Tavoletta n. 18 quarto” (A); MSNUP I12972 (B); GAMPS-00875 (C); MSNUP I12979 (D); MSNUP I12735 (panel E). All specimens are depicted in lingual view.

Figure 2

Quaternary fossils of Carcharodon carcharias from the Mediterranean Basin. (A) Excerpt of Armstrong’s [23] plate IV, depicting a white shark tooth from Menorca (Balearic Islands, Mediterranean Spain). (B) Tooth from Fauglia (Tuscany, central Italy), stored in the Museo Geopaleontologico Scienze della Terra del “Gruppo AVIS Mineralogia e Paleontologia Scandicci” (=GAMPS, Badia a Settimo-Scandicci). (C) Tooth from the Meloria shoals (Tuscany, central Italy), stored in the GAMPS. Although some issues exist about the stratigraphic provenance of the specimens depicted in (A,C), they are likely Pleistocene in age [22,24]. Specimen codes are as follows: GAMPS-01073 (B); GAMPS-01072 (C). Note that the scale bar only applies to (B,C). All specimens are depicted in lingual view.

Figure 3

Chronostratigraphic and geographic distribution of fossil records of Carcharodon carcharias from the peri-Mediterranean area (A), with a close-up of central and northern Italy, where most finds concentrate (B). Data after the many works by Vicens and Gracia [25], Bianucci et al. [11], Bisconti [26], Dominici et al. [27], Adnet et al. [28], Pawellek et al. [29], Danise and Dominici [30], Freschi [31], Bendella et al. [32], Bernárdez and Rábano [24], Zazzera et al. [33] and Collareta et al. [22]. Note that records that originate from outside the Mediterranean (palaeo)geographic domain (e.g., from the Guadalquivir Basin of southern Spain; [34]) are not shown in the figure. The position of the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary follows Gibbard et al. [35].

Figure 4

Taphonomic evidence for the trophic ecology of the Mediterranean white sharks in Pliocene times, consisting of marine vertebrate skeletons with associated teeth of Carcharodon carcharias. (A) Schematic line drawing of a skeleton of Hemisyntrachelus cortesii from the Pliocene deposits of Salsomaggiore Terme (Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy). (B) Schematic line drawing of a skeleton of Balaenopteridae indet. from the Pliocene deposits of Orciano Pisano (Tuscany, central Italy). (C) Schematic line drawing of a skeleton of Balaenoptera sp. from the Pleistocene deposits of Lama Lamasinata (Apulia, southern Italy). White shark teeth are displayed in red colour. Anatomical abbreviations are as follows: cr, cranium; hu, humerus; md, mandible; ra, radius; sc, scapula; ul, ulna. (A–C) redrawn and modified after Bianucci et al. [11], Dominici et al. [27] and Zazzera et al. [33], respectively.

Cited by

Late Miocene transformation of Mediterranean Sea biodiversity.
Agiadi K, Hohmann N, Gliozzi E, Thivaiou D, Bosellini FR, Taviani M, Bianucci G, Collareta A, Londeix L, Faranda C, Bulian F, Koskeridou E, Lozar F, Mancini AM, Dominici S, Moissette P, Campos IB, Borghi E, Iliopoulos G, Antonarakou A, Kontakiotis G, Besiou E, Zarkogiannis SD, Harzhauser M, Sierro FJ, Coll M, Vasiliev I, Camerlenghi A, García-Castellanos D. Agiadi K, et al. Sci Adv. 2024 Sep 27;10(39):eadp1134. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adp1134. Epub 2024 Sep 25. Sci Adv. 2024. PMID: 39321301 Free PMC article.

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The Deep Past of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Mediterranean Sea: A Synthesis of Its Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology - PubMed (original) (raw)