Remingtonocetidae Explained
Remingtonocetidae is a diverse family of early aquatic mammals of the order Cetacea. The family is named after paleocetologist Remington Kellogg.
Description
Remingtonocetids have long and narrow skulls with the external nare openings located on the front of the skull. Their frontal shields are narrow and their orbits small. Their mouth has a convex palate and an incompletely fused mandibular symphysis. The dental formula is . The anterior teeth are flattened mediolaterally, making them appear shark-like.
In the postcranial skeleton, the cervical vertebrae are relatively long and the sacrum is composed of four vertebrae of which at least three are fused. The acetabular notch is narrow or closed and on the femoral head the fovea is absent.
Cranial fossils are common but dental remains are rare. The postcrania morphology is based entirely on a single specimen of Kutchicetus which was small and had a long and muscular back and tail. Perhaps remintonocetids swam like the South American giant otter which swims with its long flat tail.
With long and low bodies, relatively short limbs, their elongated rostrum, remingtonocetids looked like mammalian crocodiles, more so than Ambulocetus. They could both walk on land and swim in the water and most likely lived in a near-shore habitat. At least one genus, Dalanistes, had a marine diet.
Remingtonocetids are often found in association with catfish and crocodilians, as well as protocetid whales and sirenians. They were probably independent of freshwater.
Distribution
Remingtonocetidae was long considered endemic to the northern coastline of the ancient Tethys Ocean (in present day Pakistan and India) during the Eocene, but the discovery of Rayanistes in Egypt indicates that remingtonocetids had a broader distribution than previously thought.
Taxonomy
Remingtonocetidae was established by . It was considered monophyletic by . It was assigned to Odontoceti by ; to Remingtonocetoidea by and ; to Archaeoceti by ; to Archaeoceti by,,,,,,, and and to Cetacea by, and .[1]
The name of the family was derived from the type genus Remingtonocetus, which was named after paleocetologist Remington Kellogg.[2]
In 2009, paleontologists Thewissen & Bajpai proposed the subfamily Andrewsiphiinae for the genera Andrewsiphius and Kutchicetus.[3]
Genera
See also
References
- Book: Benton, Micheal J.
. The Fossil Record 2 . 1993 . Springer . 9780412393808 .
- Book: Bianucci . Giovanni . Landini . Walter . Fossil History . 35–93 . Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Cetacea . Miller . Debra L. . 2007 . Science Publishers . 978-1-4398-4257-7 . 10.1201/b11001-3 . 646769361 . Whales, Porpoises and Dolphins.
- Book: Fordyce, R. Ewan
. Cetacean evolution and Eocene-Oligocene oceans revisited . 154–170 . From Greenhouse to Icehouse: The Marine Eocene-Oligocene Transition . 2003 . Columbia University Press . New York . 9780231127165 . 50116197 .
- Book: Fordyce . R. Ewan . Barnes . Lawrence G. . The evolutionary history of whales and dolphins . 419–55 . Wetherill . George W . Albee . Arden L . Burke . K . 1994 . Annual Review of Earth Planetary Sciences . 22 . 9780824320225 . 30676887 .
- Fordyce . R. Ewan . Barnes . Lawrence G. . Miyazaki . N. . General aspects of the evolutionary history of whales and dolphins . 1995 . The Island Arc . 3 . 4 . 373–391 . 4643465301 . 10.1111/j.1440-1738.1994.tb00121.x.
- Book: Fordyce . R. Ewan . Muizon . Christian, de . Evolutionary history of whales: a review . 169–234 . Mazin . Jean-Michel . Buffrenil . Vivian, de . Secondary adaptation of tetrapods to life in water. Proceedings of the international meeting, Poitiers, 1996 . 2001 . Verlag Dr Friedriech Pfeil . München . 9783931516888 . 52121251 .
- Geisler . Jonathan H. . Sanders . Albert E. . Morphological Evidence for the Phylogeny of Cetacea . 2003 . Journal of Mammalian Evolution . 10 . 1/2 . 23–129 . 361831220 . 10.1023/a:1025552007291. 12271012 .
- Gingerich . Philip D. . Arif . Muhammad . Clyde . William C. . New Archaeocetes (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the middle Eocene Domanda Formation of the Sulaiman Range, Punjab (Pakistan) . 1995 . Contributions from Museum of Paleontology, the University of Michigan . 29 . 11 . 291–330 . 34123868 . 2027.42/48650 .
- Gingerich . Philip D. . Ul-Haq . Munir . Khan . Intizar Hussain . Zalmout . Iyad S. . Eocene stratrigraphy and archaeocete whales (Mammalia, Cetacea) of Drug Lahar in the eastern Sulaiman range, Balochistan (Pakistan) . 2001 . Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan . 30 . 11 . 269–319 . 2027.42/48661 .
- Kumar . K. . Sahni . A. . Remingtonocetus harudiensis, new combination, a middle Eocene archaeocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from western Kutch, India . 1986 . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 6 . 4 . 326–349 . 10.1080/02724634.1986.10011629 . 4649653943 .
- Book: McKenna . Malcolm C. . Bell . Susan K. . Classification of mammals above the species level . 1997 . New York . Columbia University Press . 978-0-231-11013-6 . 37345734 .
- Book: McLeod . S. A. . Barnes . L. G. . A new genus and species of Eocene protocetid archaeocete whale (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Atlantic Coastal plain . Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of Western and Southern North America . Wang . Xiaoming . Barnes . Lawrence G. . 2008 . Science Series, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County . 41 . 73–98 . http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/pdf/contrib_science/SS-41.pdf . 23 February 2013 .
- Mitchell . Edward D. . A new cetacean from the late Eocene La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula . 1989 . Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences . 46 . 12 . 2219–35 . 41657907 . 10.1139/f89-273.
- Book: Rice, Dale W.
. Marine Mammals of the World: Systematics and Distribution . 1998 . The Society for Marine Mammalogy Special Publication . Special publication (Society for Marine Mammalogy), 4 . 1–231 . 9781891276033 . 40622084 .
- Sahni . Ashok . Mishra . Vijay Prakash . Lower Tertiary vertebrates from western India . 1975 . Monograph of the Paleontological Society of India . 3 . 1–48 . 3566369 . B0007AL8UE .
- Thewissen . J.G.M. . Bajpai . Sunil . New Skeletal Material of Andrewsiphius and Kutchicetus, Two Eocene Cetaceans from India . 2009 . Journal of Paleontology . 83 . 5 . 635–663 . 10.1666/08-045.1 . 86090504 . 4631929027 .
- Thewissen . J.G.M. . Hussain . S.T. . Attockicetus praecursor, a new remingtonocetid cetacean from marine Eocene sediments of Pakistan . 2000 . Journal of Mammalian Evolution . 7 . 3 . 133–46 . 10.1023/A:1009458618729 . 5700031 . 362777268 .
- Thewissen . J.G.M. . Williams . E.M. . The Early Radiations of Cetacea (Mammalia): Evolutionary Pattern and Developmental Correlations . 2002 . Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics . 33 . 73–90 . 23 February 2013 . 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.33.020602.095426 . 4656321698 .
- Thewissen . J.G.M. . Williams . E.M. . Hussain . S.T. . Eocene mammal faunas from northern Indo-Pakistan . 2001 . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 21 . 2 . 347–366 . 10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0347:EMFFNI]2.0.CO;2 . 130701636 . 631973716 .
- Uhen . Mark D . The Origin(s) of Whales . 2010 . Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences . 38 . 1 . 189–219 . 10.1146/annurev-earth-040809-152453 . 2010AREPS..38..189U .
Notes and References
- . Retrieved February 2013
- Ryan M. Bebej, Iyad S. Zalmout, Ahmed A. Abed El-Aziz, Mohammed Sameh M. Antar and Philip D. Gingerich (2016). "First remingtonocetid archaeocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the middle Eocene of Egypt with implications for biogeography and locomotion in early cetacean evolution". Journal of Paleontology. in press. doi:10.1017/jpa.2015.57.
- Thewissen, J.G.M.. Bajpai, Sunil. New Skeletal Material of Andrewsiphius and Kutchicetus, Two Eocene Cetaceans from India. 2009. Journal of Paleontology. 83. 5. 635–63. 10.1666/08-045.1. 86090504. 4908550552. Hans Thewissen.