Xenorophus

<i>Xenorophus</i>

Xenorophus

Extinct genus of mammals

Xenorophus is a genus of primitive odontocete from late Oligocene (Chattian) marine deposits in South Carolina belonging to Xenorophidae.

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Species ...

Classification

Xenorophus was originally described on the basis of a skull from the Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina in the collections of the USNM.[1] Later authors, but also Remington Kellogg who described the genus, classified it in the family Agorophiidae, which eventually became a repository for primitive odontocetes. Whitmore and Sanders (1977) and Fordyce (1981), however, preferred to treat Xenorophus as Odontoceti incertae sedis.[2][3][4][5] A cladistic analysis by Mark Uhen published in 2008 recognized Xenorophus as belonging with Archaeodelphis and Albertodelphis in an odontocete clade more primitive than Agorophius or Simocetus, and named it Xenorophidae.[6]

Paleobiology

Xenorophus was capable of echolocation like modern dolphins, judging from the cranial features of two other xenorophids, Echovenator and Cotylocara[7][8] and from the shape of its own skull.[9] It had an estimated body length of 2.6 to 3 metres (8 ft 6 in to 9 ft 10 in).[9]

References

  1. [1]
    R. Kellogg. 1923. Description of an apparently new toothed cetacean from South Carolina. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 76(7):1-7
  2. [2]
    R. Kellogg. 1928. The History of Whales - Their Adaptation to Life in the Water. The Quarterly Review of Biology 3(1):29-76.
  3. [3]
    F. C. Whitmore and A. E. Sanders. 1977. Review of the Oligocene Cetacea. Systematic Zoology 25:304-320.
  4. [4]
    R. E. Fordyce. 1981. Systematics of the odontocete whale Agorophius pygmaeus and the Family Agorophiidae (Mammalia: Cetacea). Journal of Paleontology 55(5):1028-1045.
  5. [5]
    G. G. Simpson. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 85:1-350.
  6. [6]
    Uhen, M.D. (2008). "A new Xenorophus-like odontocete cetacean from the Oligocene of North Carolina and a discussion of the basal odontocete radiation". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4): 433–452. doi:10.1017/S1477201908002472. S2CID 86668273.
  7. [7]
    Geisler, J.H.; Colbert, M.W.; Carew, J.L. (2014). "A new fossil species supports an early origin for toothed whale echolocation". Nature. 508 (7496): 383–386. Bibcode:2014Natur.508..383G. doi:10.1038/nature13086. PMID 24670659. S2CID 4457391.
  8. [8]
    Churchill, M.; Martinez-Caceres, M.; et al. (2016). "The origin of high-frequency hearing in whales". Current Biology. 26 (16): 2144–2149. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.004. PMID 27498568. S2CID 3944589.
  9. [9]
    Boessenecker, R.W.; Geisler, J.H. (November 2023). "New skeletons of the ancient dolphin Xenorophus sloanii and Xenorophus simplicidens sp. nov. (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Oligocene of South Carolina and the ontogeny, functional anatomy, asymmetry, pathology, and evolution of the earliest Odontoceti". Diversity. 15 (11): 1154. doi:10.3390/d15111154.
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