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 
| |
| 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
edit- Notes
- ^ Leidy 1873, Plate XXXVII, Fig. 15
- ^ "†Pontobasileus Leidy 1873 (whale)". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ Gillette 1975, p. 65
- ^ Kellogg 1936, pp. 264–265
- ^ Hulbert et al. 1998, p. 918
- Sources
- Gillette, D. D. (1975). "Catalogue of Type Specimens of Fossil Vertebrates, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia Introduction and Part I: Marine Mammals". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 127: 63–66. JSTOR 4064701.
- Hulbert, R. C. Jr.; Petkewich, R. M.; Bishop, G. A.; Bukry, D.; Aleshire, D. P. (1998). "A new middle Eocene protocetid whale (Mammalia: Cetacea: Archaeoceti) and associated biota from Georgia". Journal of Paleontology. 72 (5): 907–926. doi:10.1017/S0022336000027232. JSTOR 1306667. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
- Kellogg, R. (1936). A review of the Archaeoceti (PDF, 48 Mb). Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. OCLC 681376. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
- Leidy, J. (1873). Contributions to the Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories. Report of the United States Geological Survey of the territories. United States. Dept. of the Interior. pp. 1–358. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- "J. Leidy 1873". Fossilworks.