Cynthiacetus

Cynthiacetus
Temporal range: Late Eocene
Skeleton at the MNHN, Paris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Archaeoceti
Family: Basilosauridae
Genus: Cynthiacetus
Uhen 2005
Species

Cynthiacetus is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale that lived during the Upper Eocene (Bartonian-Priabonian, 40.4 to 33.9 million years ago.)[1] Specimens has been found in the south-eastern United States, Egypt and Peru.[2]

Skull of C. peruvianus at the MNHN, Paris

The skull of Cynthiacetus was similar in size and morphology to that of Basilosaurus, but Cynthiacetus lacked the elongated vertebrae of Basilosaurus. Uhen 2005 erected the genus to avoid the nomen dubium Pontogeneus (which was based on poorly described and now vanished specimens).[3] Cynthiacetus was smaller than Masracetus.[4]

The South American species C. peruvianus, the first archaeocete to be described on that continent, mainly differs from C. maxwelli in the number of cuspids in the lower premolars, but it also has the greatest numbers of thoracic vertebrae (20).[2]

Notes

References

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