Beneziphius is an extinct genus of ziphiid cetacean known from late Miocene to Pliocene marine deposits in Belgium and fishing grounds off Spain. The genus name honors Pierre-Joseph van Beneden, who pioneered the study of Neogene marine mammals from Belgium.
| Beneziphius | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Family: | Ziphiidae |
| Genus: | †Beneziphius Lambert, 2005 |
| Species | |
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Taxonomy
editTwo species are known, B. brevirostris and B. cetariensis. Beneziphius differs from other primitive beaked whales ("Messapicetus clade" sensu Bianucci et al. 2016) in having ankylosed thickened premaxillae dorsally roofing the mesorostral groove for most of its length.[1][2] The two species of Beneziphius differ from each other in their size, rostral length, premaxillary length, and features of the premaxillary sac fossa.[3]
References
edit- ^ Lambert, O. 2005. Systematics and phylogeny of the fossil beaked whales Ziphirostrum du Bus, 1868 and Choneziphius Duvernoy, 1851 (Cetacea, Odontoceti), from the Neogene of Antwerp (North of Belgium). Geodiversitas 27: 443–497.
- ^ Bianucci, G., Di Celma, C., Urbina, M., and Lambert, O. 2016. New beaked whales from the late Miocene of Peru and evidence for convergent evolution in stem and crown Ziphiidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti). PeerJ 4: e2479.
- ^ Miján, I., Louwye, S., and Lambert, O. 2017. A new Beneziphius beaked whale from the ocean floor off Galicia, Spain and biostratigraphic reassessment of the type species. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 62 (1): 211–220.