Willungacetus

Willungacetus
Temporal range: Oligocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: †Aetiocetidae (?)
Genus: †Willungacetus
Pledge 2005
Species

†W. aldingensis
Pledge 2005

Willungacetus is an extinct genus of primitive baleen whale of the family Aetiocetidae known from the Oligocene of Australia (at Port Willunga, 35°18′S 138°30′E / 35.3°S 138.5°E / -35.3; 138.5, paleocoordinates 52°54′S 133°42′E / 52.9°S 133.7°E / -52.9; 133.7).[1][2] It is the oldest-known whale from Australia,[3] and the only aetiocetid whale currently known from the Southern Hemisphere.

Neville S. Pledge first visited the type locality in 1983 and collected two boulders. These two rocks, however, were forgotten until 2001 when a partial vertebra were discovered within. The site was subsequently revisited and another specimen, a partial cranium, was discovered. Pledge referred a radius, collected from the same cliff in 1994, to his newly named species.[4]

Pledge provisionally assigned Willungacetus to Aetiocetidae, but this assignment still needs to be confirmed.[5]

Sister Taxa

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "Willungacetus". Fossilworks. Retrieved January 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  2. ↑ "Port Willunga cliffs (Oligocene of Australia)". Fossilworks. Retrieved January 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  3. ↑ "South Australia Museum - Objects of Interest". South Australian Museum. Archived from the original on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2008.
  4. ↑ Pledge 2005, pp. 123–124
  5. ↑ Deméré & Berta 2008, p. 308

Sources

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