Eomysticetus

Eomysticetus
Temporal range: Chattian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Mysticeti
Superfamily: Chaeomysticeti
Family: Eomysticetidae
Genus: Eomysticetus
Sanders and Barnes, 2002
Species

†E. carolinensis Sanders and Barnes, 2002
†E. whitmorei Sanders and Barnes, 2002 (type)

Eomysticetus is an extinct genus of toothless baleen whale from the late Oligocene (Chattian) Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina.[1]

Physical characteristics

Eomysticetus is a member of the family Eomysticetidae, which also includes the Japanese form Yamatocetus and also "Mauicetus" lophocephalus and Tohoraata from New Zealand.[2] Like other members of the mysticete clade Chaeomysticeti, its jaws had baleen instead of teeth, meaning that it could filter plankton with its baleen plates.[3][4][5]

Unlike modern baleen whales, Eomysticetus had a blowhole that was positioned ahead of the eyes, and the characteristics of its vertebrae and flipper bones are akin to those of archaeocetes like Basilosaurus.[3]

Taxonomy

There are two species of Eomysticetus, E. whitmorei and E. carolinensis, both from the Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sanders, A. E.; Barnes, L. G. (2002). "Paleontology of the Late Oligocene Ashley and Chandler Bridge Formations of South Carolina, 3: Eomysticetidae, a new family of primitive mysticetes (Mammalia: Cetacea)". In Emry, R. J. Cenozoic Mammals of Land and Sea: Tributes to the Career of Clayton E. Ray. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 93. pp. 313–356. Retrieved October 2014. (148Mb)
  2. ↑ Boessenecker, Robert W. "Dissertation research on archaic fossil baleen whales (Eomysticetidae) from the Oligocene of New Zealand". Retrieved October 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Eomysticetus whitmorei". NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine. Retrieved October 2014.
  4. ↑ Y. Okazaki. 2012. A new mysticete form the upper Oligocene Ashiya Group, Kyushu, Japan and its significance to mysticete evolution. Bulletin of the Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History Series A (Natural History) 10:129-152
  5. ↑ Boessenecker, R. W., Fordyce, R. E. (2014), A new Eomysticetid (Mammalia: Cetacea) from the Late Oligocene of New Zealand and a re-evaluation of ‘Mauicetus’ waitakiensis. Papers in Palaeontology. doi: 10.1002/spp2.1005