Kekenodontidae

Kekenodontidae is an extinct family of non-neocete pelagicetes from the Late Oligocene (Chattian) epoch of New Zealand.

Kekenodontidae

Unknown author Unknown author · Public Domain · 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
PelagicetiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cetacea
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cetacea

Time the record covers

At most 4.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 27.3 Mya and 23.04 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 9 of 9 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 9 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27.8 Mya22.5 Mya

9 occurrences of Kekenodontidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

9 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

5 formations

El Cien — 24.44°N, 110.70°WEl Cien — 24.47°N, 110.70°WEl Cien — 24.38°N, 110.75°WKokoamu Greensand — 44.67°S, 170.36°EKokoamu Greensand — 44.89°S, 170.71°EGambier Limestone — 37.82°S, 140.64°EOtekaike Limestone — 44.96°S, 170.65°EMahurangi Limestone — 36.26°S, 174.47°E

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

Kekenodontidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Kekenodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Kekenodontidae, 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

6 references

Each of the 9 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 Kekenodontidae

Credit
Unknown author Unknown author
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itPelagiceti through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Mitchell 1989)