Cetotheriidae

Cetotheriidae is a family of baleen whales. The family is known to have existed from the Late Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene before going extinct. Although some phylogenetic studies conducted by Fordyce & Marx 2013 recovered the living pygmy right whale as a member of Cetotheriidae, making the pygmy right whale the only living cetotheriid, other authors either dispute this placement or recover Neobalaenidae as a sister group to Cetotheriidae.

Cetotheriidae

Pavel Gol’din, Dmitry Startsev, and Tatiana Krakhmalnaya · CC BY 2.0 · 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
ChaeomysticetiPBDB
Diet
carnivore, suspension feederPBDB, for Mysticeti
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mysticeti
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mysticeti

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 5 of 262 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 177 of 262 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 59 of 262 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 9 of 262 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–22 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 5 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 8 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 13 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 20 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 18 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 15 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 15 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 15 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 15 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 9 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 14 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 16 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 25 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

262 occurrences of Cetotheriidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

262 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

82 formations

San Diego — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSan Diego — 32.76°N, 117.14°WSan Diego — 32.64°N, 117.01°WSan Diego — 32.63°N, 117.10°WSan Diego — 32.68°N, 117.10°WSan Diego — 32.75°N, 117.18°WPisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WPisco — 15.44°S, 74.87°WPisco — 15.50°S, 74.80°WPisco — 15.55°S, 74.80°WPisco — 14.56°S, 75.67°WPisco — 14.34°S, 75.91°WPisco — 14.36°S, 75.71°WPisco — 14.79°S, 75.51°WMonterey — 33.56°N, 117.71°WMonterey — 37.11°N, 122.33°WYorktown — 35.93°N, 77.57°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WYorktown — 37.29°N, 77.30°WHaraichi — 36.32°N, 138.88°EHaraichi — 36.25°N, 138.98°EHaraichi — 36.17°N, 138.67°EPurisima — 36.96°N, 121.96°WPurisima — 37.28°N, 122.41°WTatsunokuchi — 38.33°N, 140.81°ETatsunokuchi — 39.07°N, 141.18°ETatsunokuchi — 38.98°N, 141.12°ETatsunokuchi — 38.86°N, 141.04°ESt Marys — 38.42°N, 76.62°WSt Marys — 38.36°N, 76.39°WSt Marys — 38.33°N, 76.43°WEl Cien — 24.38°N, 110.75°WEl Cien — 24.39°N, 111.09°WEl Cien — 24.34°N, 110.99°WEl Cien — 25.19°N, 110.91°WAstoria — 44.63°N, 124.07°WAstoria — 44.70°N, 124.06°WDiest — 51.22°N, 4.46°EDiest — 51.18°N, 4.83°EDiest — 51.21°N, 4.43°ECalvert — 38.17°N, 76.85°WCalvert — 38.54°N, 76.73°WCalvert — 37.78°N, 77.52°WGroote Heide — 52.04°N, 6.67°EBreda — 51.97°N, 6.72°EBreda — 52.15°N, 6.61°EBreda — 51.37°N, 3.91°EChersonian — 46.97°N, 31.99°EChersonian — 45.17°N, 36.35°EChersonian — 45.34°N, 36.46°ESan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WPort Campbell Limestone — 38.39°S, 142.61°EPort Campbell Limestone — 37.72°S, 141.93°EPort Campbell Limestone — 38.67°S, 143.12°EBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.99°S, 145.04°ESanta Margarita — 37.00°N, 122.00°WKattendijk — 51.26°N, 4.27°EKattendijk — 51.17°N, 4.85°EBlinovo — 44.59°N, 40.05°EBlinovo — 44.59°N, 40.08°EPuerto Madryn — 42.24°S, 64.19°WPuerto Madryn — 42.26°S, 64.63°WPuerto Madryn — 42.25°S, 64.31°WVaqueros — 36.02°N, 120.54°WVaqueros — 37.41°N, 122.19°WRed Crag — 51.96°N, 1.35°E

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The named rock units Cetotheriidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 58 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 73 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cetotheriidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cetotheriidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,596 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 207 sites for Cetotheriidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

136 references

Each of the 262 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. 124 further references are not listed. 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 Cetotheriidae

Credit
Pavel Gol’din, Dmitry Startsev, and Tatiana Krakhmalnaya
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cetotheriidae 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 itChaeomysticeti through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Brandt 1872)