| Blunt-snouted dolphin Temporal range: Early to Middle Pleistocene |
|
|---|---|
| Artist's reconstruction | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Cetacea |
| Family: | Delphinidae |
| Subfamily: | Orcininae |
| Genus: | †Platalearostrum |
| Species: | †P. hoekmani Post & Kompanje, 2010 |
| Binomial name | |
| Platalearostrum hoekmani Post & Kompanje, 2010 |
|
Blunt-snouted dolphin (Platalearostrum hoekmani, "Albert Hoekman's spoon-rostrum") is a prehistoric pilot whale known from a single specimen (NMR-9991-00005362), consisting of a partial rostrum, partial maxilla, partial premaxilla, and partial vomer. The fossil was discovered by Albert Hoekman onboard a fishing trawler crew in the North Sea in 2008 and described in 2010 by Klaas Post and Erwin J.O. Kompanje. The blunt-snouted dolphin is believed to have had a balloonlike structure atop its rostrum and is estimated to have lived during the early or middle Pleistocene.[1]