Brygmophyseter shigensis

Brygmophyseter, known as the biting sperm whale, is an extinct genus of toothed whale in the sperm whale family with one species, B. shigensis. When it was first described in 1994, the species was placed in the genus Scaldicetus based on tooth morphology, but this was later revised in 2006. A month later since the naming of Brygmophyseter, another study classified this species into the genus Naganocetus, which is considered to be a junior synonym. The only known specimen, a nearly complete skeleton, was dated to be around 16–14 million years old. The Brygmophyseter holotype is estimated to have been 6 to 7 meters long by different researchers, and it probably had 11 or 12 large teeth covered with thick enamel in the upper and lower jaws. The tooth roots were firmly embedded in the gums, making it easy to catch resistance-fighting prey. Brygmophyseter is part of a group of macroraptorial sperm whales which tended to be apex predators using their large teeth to catch large prey such as whales. It had a spermaceti organ which was probably used for biosonar like in the modern sperm whale. The whale has made an appearance on The History Channel's TV series Jurassic Fight Club.

Brygmophyseter shigensis

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
BrygmophyseterPBDB
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 most 4.4 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 15.98 Mya and 11.63 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesMiocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16.5 Mya11.1 Mya

2 occurrences of Brygmophyseter shigensis 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

2 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

2 formations

Bessho — 36.33°N, 138.00°EAoki — 36.31°N, 137.95°E

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The named rock units Brygmophyseter shigensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Brygmophyseter shigensis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Brygmophyseter shigensis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

6 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Brygmophyseter shigensis, 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 2 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. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Brygmophyseter shigensis

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 Brygmophyseter shigensis 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 itBrygmophyseter through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Hirota and Barnes 1995)