Microcetus

Microcetus
Temporal range: Late Oligocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: †Waipatiidae (?)
Genus: †Microcetus
Kellogg, 1923
Species
  • M. ambiguus (von Meyer, 1840) (type)
  • ?M. sharkovi Dubrovo and Sharkov 1971

Microcetus is a genus of extinct odontocete from the late Oligocene (Chattian) of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Taxonomy

The type species of Microcetus, M. ambiguus, was originally described as a new species of Phoca on the basis of teeth from late Oligocene deposits in northwestern Germany. The odontocete nature of the teeth was eventually recognized, and it was eventually assigned to Squalodon, before being made the type species of a new genus, Microcetus.

Misassigned species

References

  1. ↑ H. Meyer. 1840. Phoca ambiguua, Munster. Beitrage zur Petrefacten-Kunde 3:1-11
  2. ↑ E. L. Trouessart. 1898. Catalogus mammalium tam viventium quam fossilum 5:665-1264
  3. ↑ G. Dal Piaz. 1916. Squalodon. Memoirie dell'Instituto geologico della R. Università di Padova 4:1-94
  4. ↑ R. Kellogg. 1923. Description of two squalodonts recently discovered in the Calvert Cliffs, Maryland; and notes on the shark-toothed cetaceans. Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum 62(16):1-69
  5. ↑ I. A. Dubrovo and A. A. Sharkov. 1971. Kit iz verkhnego oligotsena Mangyshlaka (Whale from the upper Oligocene of Mangyshlak). Doklady Akademii Nauk SSR, Moscow 198(6):140-143
  6. ↑ R. E. Fordyce. 1994. Waipatia maerewhenua, New Genus and New Species, Waipatiidae, New Family, an archaic late Oligocene dolphin (Cetacea: Odontoceti: Platanistoidea) from New Zealand. Contributions in Marine Mammal Paleontology Honoring Frank C. Whitmore Jr., Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History 29:147-176
  7. ↑ Y. Tanaka and R. E. Fordyce. 2015. Historically significant late Oligocene dolphin Microcetus hectori Benham 1935: a new species of Waipatia (Platanistoidea). Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand