Biology:Macrodelphinus

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Short description: Extinct genus of mammals

Macrodelphinus
Temporal range: Late Oligocene
Macrodelphinus and Eurhinodelphis.
Scientific classification edit
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Animalia
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Chordata
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Mammalia
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Artiodactyla
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Cetacea
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Eurhinodelphinidae
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Macrodelphinus
Wilson 1935
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: <div style="display:inline" class="script error: no such module "taxobox ranks".">†M. kelloggi
Binomial name
Macrodelphinus kelloggi
Wilson 1935

Macrodelphinus is an extinct genus of primitive odontocete known from Late Oligocene (Chattian) marine deposits in California.

Biology

Macrodelphinus was an orca-sized odontocete similar to members of Eurhinodelphinidae in having a swordfish-like rostrum and upper jaw. Because of its size, and inch-long teeth, it is believed to have been an apex predator.

Classification

Macrodelphinus is known from a fragmentary skull from the Late Oligocene Jewett Sand Formation of Kern County, southern California.[1] Although often classified as a member of Eurhinodelphinidae, the cladistic analysis of Chilcacetus recovers it outside Eurhinodelphinidae, less advanced than Eoplatanista.[2] The Miocene species "Champsodelphis" valenciennesii Brandt, 1873, based on a rostrum fragment from marine sediments in Landes, France, was assigned to Macrodelphinus by Kellogg (1944).[3]

References

  1. L. E. Wilson. 1935. Miocene marine mammals from the Bakersfield region, California. The Peabody Museum of Natural History Bulletin 4:1-143.
  2. O. Lambert, C. de Muizon, and G. Bianucci. 2015. A new archaic homodont toothed cetacean (Mammalia, Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the early Miocene of Peru. Geodiversitas 37(1):79-108
  3. R. Kellogg. 1944. Fossil Cetaceans from the Florida Tertiary. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College XCIV(9):433-471.

Wikidata ☰ Q6725256 entry