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Inticetus

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Inticetus
Temporal range: Early Miocene
~18–16.0 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Parvorder: Odontoceti
Family: Inticetidae
Genus: Inticetus
Lambert et al. 2017
Species
  • I. vertizi Lambert et al. 2017 (type)

Inticetus is an extinct genus of Early Miocene odontocete from the Chilcatay Formation, Pisco Basin, Peru.

Description

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Inticetus is distinguished from other archaic heterodont odontocetes by the following features: long and robust rostrum bearing at least 18 teeth per quadrant; the absence of procumbent anterior teeth; many large, broad-based accessory denticles in double-rooted posterior cheek teeth; a reduced ornament of dental crowns; the styliform process of the jugal being markedly robust; a large fovea epitubaria on the periotic, with a correspondingly voluminous accessory ossicle of the tympanic bulla; and a shortened tuberculum of the malleus.[1]

Classification

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Inticetus was judged by Lambert et al. to be sufficiently distinct from other archaic heterodont odontocetes to be placed in a new family, Inticetidae. The authors recovered it as either outside crown Odontoceti or as an early-branching member of Platanistoidea.

Phococetus, previously assigned to Kekenodontidae, is apparently a relative of Inticetus.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Olivier Lambert, Christian de Muizon, Elisa Malinverno, Claudio Di Celma, Mario Urbina and Giovanni Bianucci. 2017. A New Odontocete (Toothed Cetacean) from the Early Miocene of Peru Expands the Morphological Disparity of Extinct Heterodont Dolphins. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2017.1359689
  2. ^ Robert W. Boessenecker (2018). Problematic archaic whale Phococetus (Cetacea: Odontoceti) from the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, USA, with comments on geochronology of the Pungo River Formation. PalZ. in press. doi:10.1007/s12542-018-0419-3.