Microcetus
{{Short description|Extinct genus of mammals}}
{{Automatic Taxobox
| image=
| image_caption =
| fossil_range = {{fossil_range|Late Oligocene}}
| taxon = Microcetus
| authority = Kellogg, 1923
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
- M. ambiguus (von Meyer, 1840) (type)
- ?M. sharkovi Dubrovo and Sharkov 1971
}}
Microcetus is a genus of extinct odontocete from the late Oligocene (Chattian) of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
Taxonomy
The type species of Microcetus, M. ambiguus, was originally described as a new species of Phoca on the basis of teeth from late Oligocene deposits in northwestern Germany.H. Meyer. 1840. Phoca ambiguua, Munster. Beitrage zur Petrefacten-Kunde 3:1-11 The odontocete nature of the teeth was eventually recognized, and it was eventually assigned to Squalodon,E. L. Trouessart. 1898. Catalogus mammalium tam viventium quam fossilum 5:665-1264G. Dal Piaz. 1916. Squalodon. Memoirie dell'Instituto geologico della R. Università di Padova 4:1-94 before being made the type species of a new genus, Microcetus.R. Kellogg. 1923. Description of two squalodonts recently discovered in the Calvert Cliffs, Maryland; and notes on the shark-toothed cetaceans. Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum 62(16):1-69
Misassigned species
- Microcetus hectori Benham, 1935 = Waipatia hectori
- Microcetus sharkovi Dubrovo and Sharkov, 1971I. A. Dubrovo and A. A. Sharkov. 1971. Kit iz verkhnego oligotsena Mangyshlaka (Whale from the upper Oligocene of Mangyshlak). Doklady Akademii Nauk SSR, Moscow 198(6):140-143 = likely a distinct genus, but affinities uncertainR. E. Fordyce. 1994. Waipatia maerewhenua, New Genus and New Species, Waipatiidae, New Family, an archaic late Oligocene dolphin (Cetacea: Odontoceti: Platanistoidea) from New Zealand. Contributions in Marine Mammal Paleontology Honoring Frank C. Whitmore Jr., Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History 29:147-176Y. Tanaka and R. E. Fordyce. 2015. Historically significant late Oligocene dolphin Microcetus hectori Benham 1935: a new species of Waipatia (Platanistoidea). Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand