Pontobasileus

Pontobasileus Temporal range: Eocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetacea
Suborder:	Archaeoceti
Family:	Protocetidae
Subfamily:	Georgiacetinae
Genus:	Pontobasileus Leidy 1873
Species:	P. tuberculatus
Binomial name
Pontobasileus tuberculatus Leidy 1873

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]

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

Notes

1. Leidy 1873, Plate XXXVII, Fig. 15
2. "†Pontobasileus Leidy 1873 (whale)". Fossilworks. Retrieved June 2016. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
3. Gillette 1975, p. 65
4. Kellogg 1936, pp. 264–265
5. Hulbert Jr 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: 63–66. JSTOR 4064701.
• Hulbert Jr, R. C.; 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" (PDF). Journal of Paleontology. 72 (5): 907–926. JSTOR 1306667. Retrieved June 2016. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
• Kellogg, R. (1936). A review of the Archaeoceti (PDF, 48 Mb). Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. OCLC 681376. Retrieved June 2016. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
• 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 June 2016. Lay summary (June 2016). Check date values in: |access-date= (help)