Fossil records indicate that the new whale - eating cetaceans commonly occurred at high latitudes during the Pliocene , indicating that they could cope with the increasingly prevalent cold water temperatures ; .
Cetaceans also occurred in the tropics ( e.g. , Orcinus sp. in South Africa ) .
Fossil records indicate that the new whale - eating cetaceans commonly occurred at high latitudes during the Pliocene , indicating that they could cope with the increasingly prevalent cold water temperatures ; but they also occurred in the tropics ( e.g. , Orcinus sp. in South Africa ) .