BERARDIINAE Moore, 1968

Bianucci, Giovanni, Lambert, Olivier & Post, Klaas, 2007, A high diversity in fossil beaked whales (Mammalia, Odontoceti, Ziphiidae) recovered by trawling from the sea floor off South Africa, Geodiversitas 29 (4), pp. 561-618 : 565

Subfamily BERARDIINAE Moore, 1968

TYPE GENUS. — Berardius Duvernoy, 1851 .

OTHER GENERA INCLUDED. — Archaeoziphius Lambert & Louwye, 2006 and Microberardius n. gen.

EMENDED DIAGNOSIS. — Berardiinae differ from all other Ziphiidae in the presence of a nodular protuberance formed by the interparietal or the frontals on the vertex Berardius spp. are further characterized by two pairs of apical and subapical enlarged teeth on the mandible; this character still needs to be confirmed in Archaeoziphius and Microberardius n. gen.

Other characters differentiating Berardiinae from more derived taxa are mostly symplesiomorphies: narrow and thin premaxillary crest on the low vertex; supraoccipital lower than the frontals on the vertex.

DISCUSSION

The content of the subfamily Berardiinae as defined here is more similar to the subtribe Berardiina of Moore (1968) (only including Berardius ) than to the tribe Berardiini of Muizon (1991) (including Berardius , Ninoziphius , and Tasmacetus ) or to the subfamily? Berardiinae of Lambert (2005) (including Berardius and Tasmacetus ). Additional specimens of Ninoziphius with a well preserved vertex could clarify the relationships of this genus in the proposed framework. A fragmentary cranium from the Neogene of Japan is referred to Berardius sp. ( Takahashi et al. 1989); despite general shape similarities with Berardius , the vertex might be too incomplete to provide diagnostic characters.

The presence of an ossified mesethmoid filling a significant portion of the mesorostral groove, observed in Berardius , but not verifiable in Microberardius n. gen., is also noted in SAM PQ 69676 (see below, Nenga n. gen.).