Isocetus

Isocetus is an extinct genus of baleen whale belonging to the clade Thalassotherii. Remains have been found in middle Miocene marine deposits in Belgium.

No picture of Isocetus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Isocetus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ThalassotheriiPBDB
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 most 8.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 15.98 Mya and 7.246 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesMiocene16–16 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 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10.0–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–9.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.0–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–8.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16.5 Mya6.7 Mya

4 occurrences of Isocetus 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

Berchem — 51.15°N, 4.63°EBerchem — 51.17°N, 4.46°EGram — 55.31°N, 9.06°EGroote Heide — 52.04°N, 6.67°E

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

Isocetus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Isocetus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

79 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Isocetus, 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

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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content0

No picture of Isocetus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Isocetus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itThalassotherii through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Van Beneden 1880