Kentriodon

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Kentriodon
Fossil range: Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene

Conservation status
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. were found fossils in Argentina, Peru, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, Mexico and New Zealand. But also the USA, in California, Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia

Reconstruction of Kentriodon
Reconstruction of Kentriodon

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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Perrin, Würsig, Thewissen
  • The Evolution of Whales, Adapted from National Geographic, November 2001


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