Biology:Phoberodon
Phoberodon is an extinct genus of archaic odontocete cetacean from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) of Patagonia, Argentina.
Taxonomy and description
Phoberodon was described in 1926 from a partially complete skeleton with a skull (holotype MLP 5-4) lacking the earbones, which was found in the Colhuehuapian Gaiman Formation of Chubut Province, Argentina.[1] Subsequent authors either followed Cabrera (1926) in classifying Phoberodon as a squalodontid, or considered it a relative of Waipatia although the genus was included in any cladistic analysis of archaic odontocetes.[2][3][4][5] However, known specimens lack a periotic, which incorporates most defining synapomorphies of Squalodontidae, and Viglino et al. (2018) recovered Phoberodon as distantly related to Squalodon.[6]
Palaeobiology
Palaeoecology
The morphology of its skull and its enamel ultrastructure both suggest that P. arctirostris was a raptorial feeder.[7]
References
- ↑ A. Cabrera. 1926. Cetaceos fossiles del Museo de La Plata. Revista del Museo de La Plata 29:363-411
- ↑ Simpson GG. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 85: 1–350
- ↑ M. A. Cozzuol. 1996. The record of aquatic mammals in southern South America. Munchner Geowissenshaftliche Abhandlungen. A, Geoligie und Palaontologie 30:321-342
- ↑ Fordyce RE. 1994. Waipatia maerewhenua, new genus and new species (Waipatiidae, new family), an archaic Late Oligocene dolphin (Cetacea: Odontoceti: Platanistoidea) from New Zealand. Proceedings of the San Diego Museum of Natural History 29: 147–176.
- ↑ C. Muizon. 1994. Are the squalodonts related to the platanistoids?. Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History 29:135-146
- ↑ Mariana Viglino, Mónica R Buono, R Ewan Fordyce, José I Cuitiño, Erich M G Fitzgerald, 2018. Anatomy and phylogeny of the large shark-toothed dolphin Phoberodon arctirostris Cabrera, 1926 (Cetacea: Odontoceti) from the early Miocene of Patagonia (Argentina). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society zly053, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zly053
- ↑ Viglino, Mariana; Ezcurra, Martín D.; Fordyce, R. Ewan; Loch, Carolina (8 October 2023). "The better to eat you with: morphological disparity and enamel ultrastructure in odontocetes" (in en). Scientific Reports 13 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-023-44112-8. ISSN 2045-2322. PMID 37807006. PMC 10560669. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-44112-8#citeas. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
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