Brandtocetus

Brandtocetus
Temporal range: Miocene
Brandtocetus chongulek, the holotype skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Cetotheriidae
Subfamily: Cetotheriinae
Genus: Brandtocetus
Gol'din & Startsev 2014
Type species
Brandtocetus chongulek
Gol'din & Startsev 2014

Brandtocetus is a genus of cetotheriid mysticete in the subfamily Cetotheriinae. The type and only species is Brandtocetus chongulek from the late Miocene (Tortonian) of the Kerch Peninsula in Crimea.

Brandtocetus chongulek was a whale approximately 4–5 m long differing from all Cetotheriidae by having a transversely expanded lateral portion of the squamosal bone ; a rhomboid temporal fossa; an occipital shield extending anterior to the center of the temporal fossa; and an elongated posterior process of the tympanoperiotic with a proximodistally extended, and distally expanded, distal portion exposed as an oval surface on the posterolateral skull wall.[1]

References

  1. Gol’din, Pavel; Startsev, Dmitry (2014). "Brandtocetus, a new genus of baleen whales (Cetacea, Cetotheriidae) from the late Miocene of Crimea, Ukraine". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34 (2): 419–433. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.799482.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.