Pappocetus

{{Automatic Taxobox

| name = Pappocetus

| fossil_range = Late Eocene, {{Fossil range|40.4|37.2}}}

| image = Andrews-1920-Plate-1-Pappocetus-ligardi.JPEG

| image_caption = Pappocetus lugardi specimens from {{Harvnb|Andrews|1919}}

| image2 = Pappocetus lugardi reconstructed skull.jpg

| image2_caption = Reconstructed skull at the Vancouver Aquarium

| taxon = Pappocetus

| authority = {{Harvnb|Andrews|1919}}

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = * {{Extinct}}P. lugardi
{{Harvnb|Andrews|1919}}

}}

Pappocetus is an extinct protocetid cetacean known from the Eocene of southern Nigeria's Ameki Formation and Togo.{{Paleodb|taxon|36794|Pappocetus}}. Retrieved April 2013. More recently, fossil teeth and femurs have also been discovered in the Aridal Formation of the Sahara Desert in southwestern Morocco.{{Cite journal |last=Gingerich |first=Philip D. |last2=Zouhri |first2=Samir |date=November 2015 |title=New fauna of archaeocete whales (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Bartonian middle Eocene of southern Morocco |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1464343X1530039X |journal=Journal of African Earth Sciences |language=en |volume=111 |pages=273–286 |doi=10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2015.08.006|url-access=subscription }}

Etymology

The species is named after Sir Frederick Lugard who sent one of the specimens to Andrews.

Description

Pappocetus is the largest known protocetid (if Eocetus is recovered as a basilosaurid). Its body size was estimated to be similar to that of Eocetus. It also differs from all other known protocetid genera by the step-like notch on the ventral margin of the mandible below M₂ and M₃; from Indocetus and Rodhocetus by the deciduous double-rooted P₁; from Protocetus and Babiacetus by the presence of accessory cuspules; and from Babiacetus by the unfused symphysis terminating just before P₃. Its molar morphology is similar to Georgiacetus.

= Specimens =

The type specimen BMNH M11414 is an incomplete left mandible with symphysis, a deciduous premolar, and unerupted molars.{{Harvnb|Williams|1998| pp=11–12}} It was found in Bartonian ({{Mya|40.4|37.2}}) layers of the Ameki Formation ({{Coord|6.0|7.0|display=inline}}, paleocoordinates {{Coord|1.8|1.7|display=inline}}){{Paleodb|collection|32906|Port Harcourt RR}}. Retrieved April 2013. in southern Nigeria.{{Paleodb|taxon|53999|Pappocetus lugardi}}. Retrieved April 2013.

File:Pappocetus lugardi jaw.jpg

The specimen M11086 is a left mandibular ramus broken in three pieces with sockets for canines and incisors and the front part of a single-rooted P₁. Andrews, to whom the two specimens were brought separately, noted that they "to some extent supplement one another, so that the structure is fairly clear" and thus estimated the size and morphology of the missing parts by comparing the specimens to each other.{{Harvnb|Andrews|1919| p=309}}