Pelocetus

Pelocetus is an extinct genus of baleen whale, belonging to the family Pelocetidae. Fossils have been found in Miocene-aged marine strata in North America.

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

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PanbalaenopteroideaPBDB
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 2.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 13.82 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Miocene — about 7 of 7 occurrencesMiocene20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.6–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15.98 Mya13.82 Mya20.9 Mya6.7 Mya

7 occurrences of Pelocetus 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

7 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

Calvert — 38.50°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.85°WPisco — 14.70°S, 75.32°WKorematsu — 34.87°N, 133.01°E

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The named rock units Pelocetus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pelocetus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pelocetus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

112 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Pelocetus, 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 7 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 content0

No picture of Pelocetus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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

No 3D scan of Pelocetus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itPanbalaenopteroidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kellogg 1965