Notocetus

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Notocetus
Temporal range: Early Miocene
~20.43–16 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Squalodelphinidae
Genus: Notocetus
Moreno, 1892
Species:
N. vanbenedeni
Binomial name
Notocetus vanbenedeni
Moreno, 1892
Synonyms
  • Argyrodelphis Lydekker, 1894
  • Diochotichus Ameghino, 1894
  • Diochoticus Ameghino, 1894

Notocetus is an extinct genus of river dolphin belonging to Squalodelphinidae. Known specimens have been found in Early Miocene marine deposits from Argentina, Italy and Peru.[1][2]

Taxonomy

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Notocetus was unnecessarily given the replacement name Diochoticus by Ameghino (1894) on the false assumption that Notocetus was preoccupied by Notiocetus. Lydekker (1894), meanwhile, erected Argyrodelphis for the same specimen.[3][4] The type species of Otekaikea was once considered a species of Notocetus before being recognized as belonging to Waipatiidae.[5][6]

Distribution

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Fossils of Notocetus have been found in:[7]

Palaeobiology

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Palaeoecology

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Paired analysis of the ultrastructure of its enamel, which was thin in the anterior teeth and thick in the posterior teeth, and its skull morphology suggests that N. vanbenedeni was a suction feeder.[8]

References

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  1. ^ F. P. Moreno. 1892. Lijeros apuntes sobre dos géneros de cetaceos fósiles de la República Argentina. Revista del Museo de La Plata 3:393-400
  2. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ F. Ameghino. 1894. Enumeration synoptique des especes de mammifères fossiles des formations éocènes de Patagonie. Boletin de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias en Cordoba (Republica Argentina) 13:259-452.
  4. ^ R. Lydekker. 1894. Cetacean skulls from Patagonia. Anales del Museo de la Plata II:1-13.
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Y. Tanaka and R. E. Fordyce. 2014. Fossil dolphin Otekaikea marplesi (Latest Oligocene, New Zealand) expands the morphological and taxonomic diversity of Oligocene cetaceans. PLoS One 9(9):e107972
  7. ^ Notocetus at Fossilworks.org
  8. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

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