| Kentriodon Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| K. pernix skeleton | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Family: | †Kentriodontidae |
| Genus: | †Kentriodon Kellogg, 1927 |
| Species[1] | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Kentriodon is an extinct genus of toothed whale related to modern-day dolphins. Fossils have been found in North America, Europe and Japan.[1] Several species have been described.
Description

Kentriodon was the most diverse of all the kentriodontids, which are represented by seventeen described genera. These were small to medium-sized odontocetes with largely symmetrical skulls, and thought likely to include ancestors of some modern species.[citation needed] Kentriodon is also the oldest described kentriodontid genus, reported from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene.
Kentriodontines ate small fish and other nectonic organisms; they are thought to have been active echolocators, and might have formed pods. The diversity, morphology and distribution of fossils appear parallel to some modern species.[citation needed]
Species
- Kentriodon pernix Kellogg, 1927 (type)[2]
- Kentriodon fuchsii (Brandt, 1873)[3]
- Kentriodon hobetsu Ichishima, 1995[4]
- Kentriodon obscurus (Kellogg, 1931)[5]
- Kentriodon schneideri Whitmore and Kaltenbach, 2008[6]
- Kentriodon diusinus Salinas-Márquez, Barnes, Flores-Trujillo, Aranda-Manteca, 2014[7]
- Kentriodon hoepfneri Kazár & Hampe, 2014[8]
- Kentriodon nakajimai Kimura & Hasegawa, 2019[9]
- Kentriodon sugawarai Guo & Kohno, 2021[1]
See also
References
- 1 2 3 Guo, Z., & Kohno, N. (2021). A new kentriodontid (Cetacea: Odontoceti) from the early to middle Miocene of the western North Pacific and a revision of kentriodontid phylogeny. PeerJ, 9, e10945. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10945
- ↑ R. Kellogg. 1927. Kentriodon pernix, a Miocene porpoise from Maryland. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 69(19):1-14
- ↑ J. F. Brandt. 1873. Untersuchungen über die fossilen und subfossilen cetaceen Europa's. Mémoires de L'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Petersbourg, Series 7 20(1):1-372
- ↑ H. Ichishima. 1995. A new fossil kentriodontid dolphin (Cetacea; Kentriodontidae) from the Middle Miocene Takinoue Formation, Hokkaido, Japan. The Island Arc 3:473-485
- ↑ R. Kellogg. 1931. Pelagic mammals of the Temblor Formation of the Kern River region, California. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 19(12):217-397
- ↑ F. C. Whitmore and J. A. Kaltenbach. 2008. Neogene Cetacea of the Lee Creek Phosphate Mine, North Carolina. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication 14:181-269
- ↑ F. M. Salinas-Marquez, L. G. Barnes, J. G. Flores-Trujillo and F. J. Aranda-Manteca. 2014. Una especie de delfín fósil (Cetacea; Delphinoidea; Kentriodontoidae) del Mioceno Medio de Baja California. Boletin de la Sociedad Geologica Mexicana 66(1):145-164
- ↑ Emese Kazár and Oliver Hampe (2014). "A new species of Kentriodon (Mammalia, Odontoceti, Delphinoidea) from the middle/late Miocene of Groß Pampau (Schleswig-Holstein, North Germany)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34 (5): 1216–1230. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.857347.
- ↑ Kimura, T., & Hasegawa, Y. (2019). A new species of Kentriodon (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Kentriodontidae) from the Miocene of Japan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 39(1), e1566739. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2019.1566739
Further reading
- Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Perrin, Würsig, Thewissen
- The Evolution of Whales, Adapted from National Geographic, November 2001