Macrodelphinus

Macrodelphinus is an extinct genus of primitive odontocete known from Late Oligocene (Chattian) marine deposits in California.

Macrodelphinus
Temporal range: Late Oligocene
Macrodelphinus and Eurhinodelphis.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: †Eurhinodelphinidae
Genus: †Macrodelphinus
Wilson 1935
Species:
†M. kelloggi
Binomial name
†Macrodelphinus kelloggi
Wilson 1935

Biology

Macrodelphinus was an orca-sized odontocete similar to members of Eurhinodelphinidae in having a swordfish-like rostrum and upper jaw. Because of its size, and inch-long teeth, it is believed to have been an apex predator.

Classification

Macrodelphinus is known from a fragmentary skull from the Late Oligocene Jewett Sand Formation of Kern County, southern California.[1] Although often classified as a member of Eurhinodelphinidae, the cladistic analysis of Chilcacetus recovers it outside Eurhinodelphinidae, less advanced than Eoplatanista.[2] The Miocene species "Champsodelphis" valenciennesii Brandt, 1873, based on a rostrum fragment from marine sediments in Landes, France, was assigned to Macrodelphinus by Kellogg (1944).[3]

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References
  1. L. E. Wilson. 1935. Miocene marine mammals from the Bakersfield region, California. The Peabody Museum of Natural History Bulletin 4:1-143.
  2. O. Lambert, C. de Muizon, and G. Bianucci. 2015. A new archaic homodont toothed cetacean (Mammalia, Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the early Miocene of Peru. Geodiversitas 37(1):79-108
  3. R. Kellogg. 1944. Fossil Cetaceans from the Florida Tertiary. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College XCIV(9):433-471.


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