Albicetus oxymycterus

Albicetus is a genus of stem-sperm whales that lived during the Miocene Epoch, around 15 million years ago, and was discovered in Santa Barbara, California in 1909. It was categorized for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses erroneously thought to be sperm whales. It was named Albicetus, meaning "white whale", is a reference to the leviathan in Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel Moby-Dick. Albicetus is estimated to be to about 6 meters (20 ft) long.

Albicetus oxymycterus

Uncredited · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AlbicetusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontoceti
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti

Time the record covers

At least 2.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.2–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13.82 Mya11.63 Mya16.5 Mya4.8 Mya

4 occurrences of Albicetus oxymycterus on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Monterey — 34.40°N, 119.72°WKunnui — 42.42°N, 140.01°EKadonosawa — 40.63°N, 141.17°E

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The named rock units Albicetus oxymycterus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Albicetus oxymycterus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Albicetus oxymycterus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Albicetus oxymycterus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Albicetus oxymycterus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Albicetus oxymycterus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAlbicetus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Kellogg 1925)