Llanocetus

Llanocetus is a genus of extinct toothed baleen whales from the Late Eocene of Antarctica and New Zealand. The type species, Llanocetus denticrenatus, reached gigantic proportions, with the juvenile specimen reaching an estimated 8 m (26 ft) in length; a second, unnamed species, known only from three isolated premolar teeth, reached an estimated total body length of up to 12 m (39 ft). Like other contemporary baleen whales of the Eocene, Llanocetus completely lacked baleen in its jaws. It was probably a suction feeder like the modern beaked and pygmy right whales.

Llanocetus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
LlanocetidaePBDB
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 5.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 39.1 Mya and 33.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39.6 Mya33.4 Mya

4 occurrences of Llanocetus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

Submeseta — 64.25°S, 56.62°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WRed Bluff Tuff — 43.83°S, 176.53°W

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

Llanocetus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Llanocetus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

29 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Llanocetus, 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

4 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. 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 content2

Picture of Llanocetus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itLlanocetidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

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