Early Pliocene fossil cetaceans from Hondeklip Bay, Namaqualand, South Africa.

Hondeklip Bay is a Zanclean, early Pliocene, locality in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Cetacean fauna from Hondeklip Bay includes the mysticetes: Balaenopteridae indet. (sp. 1), cf. Eschrichtius sp., Balaenopteridae indet., cf. Plesiobalaenoptera, Balaenidae indet., and the odontocetes: Physeteroidea indet, cf. Livyatan, and an unidentified neonate delphinid. Hondeklip shares a seal and cetacean taxon with Langebaanweg, which is 430 km to the south. Cf. Eschrichtius sp. from Hondeklip Bay is the first description of the taxon from South Africa and it also has the first balaenid described from South Africa. Its cetacean fauna also strengthens the links of South Africa's west coast with the Atlantic of Europe and North America, and eastern North and South Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]