Pontobasileus

Pontobasileus is an archaeocete whale known from a fragment of a single tooth described by Leidy 1873.[1][2] It can questionably be dated to the Eocene of Alabama.[3]

Pontobasileus
Temporal range:
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Protocetidae
Subfamily: Georgiacetinae
Genus: Pontobasileus
Leidy, 1873
Species:
P. tuberculatus
Binomial name
Pontobasileus tuberculatus
Leidy, 1873

Leidy assigned the tooth to Archaeoceti, but without neither a stratigraphic nor a geographic locality it is virtually impossible to argue for or against this classification. The tooth was later classified as an Archaeoceti incertae sedis[4] and even a squalodont odontocete (a more recent whale), but can also be assigned to Protocetidae.[5]

References

Notes
  1. Leidy 1873, Plate XXXVII, Fig. 15
  2. "†Pontobasileus Leidy 1873 (whale)". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  3. Gillette 1975, p. 65
  4. Kellogg 1936, pp. 264–265
  5. Hulbert et al. 1998, p. 918
Sources
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