Kentriodon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kentriodon
Fossil range: Late Oligocene - Middle Miocene

Reconstruction of Kentriodon

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetacea
Suborder:	Odontoceti
Family:	Kentriodontidae
Genus:	Kentriodon

The genus Kentriodon is the most diverse of all kentriodontids, which include three named species and five undescribed species. Kentriodontidae were small to medium-sized Odontocetes (toothed cetaceans) with largely symmetrical skulls, and thought likely to include ancestors of some modern species. Kentriodon is the oldest described kentriodontid genus, reported from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene; it is not reported from the Late Miocene. Kentriodon has the widest geographic range, fossils range from the eastern and western North Pacific, eastern and western South Pacific, western North Atlantic, and western South Atlantic, although most kentriodontids reported from this region are Late Miocene in age.

Kentriodontines ate small fish and other nectonic organisms; they are thought to have been active echolocators, and might have formed pods. Diversity, morphology and distribution of fossils appear parallel to some modern species.