Cephalotropis
Cephalotropis Temporal range: Miocene,
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Infraorder: | Cetacea |
Family: | Cetotheriidae |
Genus: | †Cephalotropis Cope, 1896 |
Species | |
†C. coronatus Cope, 1896 (type) |
Cephalotropis is a genus of baleen whale belonging to the extinct family Cetotheriidae. Its type species is Cephalotropis coronatus.
Description
[edit]Cephalotropis is diagnosed by the following features: a long sagittal crest, a more anteriorly produced angle of the supraoccipital angle, among other features.[1] There is insufficient information to determine how big Cephalotropis was, but it probably grew to about 16–20 feet long.
Taxonomy
[edit]Cephalotropis coronatus was originally described from the Late Miocene (Tortonian) St. Mary's Formation of St. Mary's Formation, Maryland, based on the holotype USNM 9352.[2] A second species of the genus, C. nectus, was named for a specimen from a Tortonian-aged formation in Portugal,[3] but is now considered a junior synonym of C. coronatus.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ Case, E. C., 1904. Systematic Paleontology, Miocene, Mammalia, in Clark, W. B., Shattuck, G. B., and Dall, W. H., The Miocene
- ^ E. D. Cope. 1896. Sixth contribution to the knowledge of the marine Miocene fauna of North America. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 35(150):139-146
- ^ R. Kellogg. 1940. On the cetotheres figured by Vandelli. Boletime do Labrotorio Mineralogico e Geologico da Universidade de Lisboa 3(7-8):13-23
- ^ P. Mocho and L. Povons. 2010. Contribucao para revisao sistematica de um cranio de Cephalotropis Cope, 1896 (Cetacea: Cetotheriidae) do Miocenico superior (Tortoniano inferior) da Adica (Sesimbra, Portugal). Jornadas de la Sociedad Espanola do Paleontologia Lisboa, Portugal 26:180-183