List of extinct cetaceans
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 A skull of Basilosaurus cetoides.
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The list of extinct cetaceans features the extinct species of the order Cetacea. The cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are descendants of land-living mammals, the even-toed ungulates. The earliest cetaceans were still hoofed-mammals. These early cetaceans became gradually better adapted for swimming than for walking on land, finally evolving into fully marine cetaceans.
This list currently includes only fossil species. However, the Atlantic population of Gray Whales (Eschrichtius robustus) was hunted to extinction in the 17th century, and the Baiji (or Chinese River Dolphin, Lipotes vexillifer) was declared "functionally extinct" after an expedition in late 2006 failed to find any in the Yangtze River.
[edit] Family Protocetidae
(Eocene)
- Artiocetus clavis[1]
- Protocetus atavus
- Rodhocetus balochistanensis
- Rhodocetus kasrani
[edit] Family Pakicetidae
(Early to Middle Eocene)
[edit] Family Ambulocetidae
(Eocene)
[edit] Family Dorudontidae
(Eocene)
[edit] Family Basilosauridae
(Late Eocene)
[edit] Family Mammalodontidae
(Eocene - Late Oligocene)
[edit] Family Janjucetidae
(Late Oligocene)
[edit] Family Kentriodontidae
(Late Oligocene - Middle Miocene)
[edit] Family Rhabdosteidae (Eurhinodelphidae)
(Mid to Late Miocene)
[edit] Family Squalodontidae
[edit] Family Squalodontidae
- Prosqualodon (Oligocene to the early Miocene)
- Squalodon (Miocene and Pliocene)
[edit] Family Cetotheriidae
(Miocene - Early Pleistocene)
- Cetotherium
- Piscobalaena nana[2]
[edit] Family Odobenocetopsidae
(Pliocene)
[edit] Family not yet specified
- Eobalaenoptera harrisoni (Middle Miocene)
[edit] References
- ^ Gingerich, P.D. et al. 2001. Origin of Whales from Early Artiodactyls: Hands and Feet of Eocene Protocetidae from Pakistan. (19 September 2001). Science [DOI: 10.1126/science.1063902].
- ^ Bouetel V. & Muizon C. de 2006. — The anatomy and relationships of Piscobalaena nana (Cetacea, Mysticeti), a Cetotheriidae s.s. from the early Pliocene of Peru. Geodiversitas 28 (2) : 319-395. Online pdf
(See also external links)
