The 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 on board a fishing trawler 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 middle Pliocene to early Pleistocene.[1]
Blunt-snouted dolphin Temporal range:
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Artist's reconstruction | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Infraorder: | Cetacea |
Family: | Delphinidae |
Subfamily: | Orcininae |
Genus: | †Platalearostrum Post & Kompanje, 2010 |
Species: | †P. hoekmani
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Binomial name | |
†Platalearostrum hoekmani Post & Kompanje, 2010
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References
edit- ^ Klaas Post & Erwin J.O. Kompanje (2010). "A new dolphin (Cetacea, Delphinidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of the North Sea". Deinsea. 14: 1–13. ISSN 0923-9308. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-11-22.