Cetotherium

Cetotherium
Temporal range: Miocene–Pliocene
Mounted skeleton of Cetotherium riabinini
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Mysticeti
Family: Cetotheriidae
Brandt 1872
Genus: Cetotherium
Brandt 1843
Species[1]

C. crassangulum Cope 1895
C. furlongi Kellogg 1925
C. incertum Brandt 1873
C. priscum Eichwald 1840
C. pusillum Nordmann 1860
C. rathkii Brandt 1843 (type)
C. riabinini Hofstein 1948

Cetotherium ("whale beast") is a genus of cetaceans from the family Cetotheriidae.[2]

Taxonomy

C. riabinini skull

The family Cetotheriidae and the genus Cetotherium (sensu lato) have been used as wastebaskets for all kinds of baleen whales, most notably by Brandt 1873, Spassky (1954) and Mčedlidze 1970. Based on more recent phylogenetic studies and revisions of many 19th century genera, much smaller monophyletic Cetotheriidae and Cetotherium sensu stricto is limited to a single or only a few species. For example, Gol'din, Startsev & Krakhmalnaya 2013 included only C. rathkii and C. riabinini in the genus and only ten genera in the family.[3]

Cetotheriidae were thought to have gone extinct during the Pliocene until 2012, when it was hypothesized that the Pygmy right whale was the sole surviving species of this family.[4]

Formerly assigned to Cetotherium

The following species were originally described as nominal species of Cetotherium but have been either reassigned to other genera or removed from Cetotherium:

Evolution

Restoration of C. furlongi

Cetotheres came into existence during the Oligocene epoch. The cetotheres have been divided into two sub-groups. One group includes Cetotherium. From evolutionary perspective, these whales share some characteristics of the Balaenopteridae and Eschrichtiidae.[12]

Paleobiology

Fossil record have revealed predator-prey relationship between large sharks (e.g. C. megalodon) and Cetotheriids. The raptorial toothed whale, Livyatan melvillei, may too have posed a threat to these whales.

See also

References

Notes

  1. "Classification of the family Cetotheriidae". Fossilwork. Retrieved December 2013.
  2. Berta & Deméré 2008
  3. 1 2 3 Gol'din, Startsev & Krakhmalnaya 2013, pp. 2, 4–6
  4. Fordyce, R. E.; Marx, F. G. (2013). "The pygmy right whale Caperea marginata: the last of the cetotheres". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280 (1753): 1–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.2645.
  5. R. Kellogg. 1925. Fossil cetotheres from California. Contributions to Palaeontology from the Carnegie Institution of Washington 348(2):35-56
  6. Kimura, T.; Hasegawa, Y. (2010). "A new baleen whale (Mysticeti: Cetotheriidae) from the earliest Late Miocene of Japan and a reconsideration of the phylogeny of Cetotheres". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30 (2): 577–591. doi:10.1080/02724631003621912.
  7. Strobel, P. (1875). "Notizie preliminari su le Balenoptere fossili subappennine del Museo parmense". Bollettino del R. Comitato Geologico d'Italia (in Italian) 5 (6): 131–140. Retrieved November 2013. Lay summary (November 2013).
  8. Bisconti, M. (2008). "Morphology and phylogenetic relationships of a new eschrichtiid genus (Cetacea: Mysticeti) from the Early Pliocene of northern Italy". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 153: 161–186. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00374.x. OCLC 438026086. Lay summary (November 2013).
  9. 1 2 Brandt, J. F. 1871. Bericht uber den Fortgang meiner Studien uber di Cetaceen, welche das grosse zur Tertiarzeit von Mitteleuropa bis Centralasien hinein ausgedehnte Meeresbechen bevolkerten. Bulletin de l'Academie Imperiale de St. Petersbourg 16: 563–566.
  10. P. I. Spasski. 1951. Ostaki tsetoheriev iz Servernogo Kavkaza (okr. g. Maikopa) Remains of cetotheria from the Northern Caucasus in the neighborhood of Maikop Town. Izvestia Akademii Nauk Azerbaidzhanskoi SSR 2:57-65
  11. K. K. Tarasenko and A. V. Lopatin. 2012. New Baleen Whale Genera (Cetacea, Mammalia) from the Miocene of the Northern Caucasus and Ciscaucasia: 1. Kurdalagonus gen. nov. from the Middle–Late Sarmatian of Adygea. Paleontological Journal 46(5):531-542
  12. Kimura & Ozawa 2002

Sources

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