Pontobasileus is an archaeocete whale known from a fragment of a single tooth described by Leidy 1873.[1][2] It can questionably be dated to the Eocene of Alabama.[3]

Pontobasileus
Temporal range: Eocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Protocetidae
Subfamily: Georgiacetinae
Genus: Pontobasileus
Leidy, 1873
Species:
P. tuberculatus
Binomial name
Pontobasileus tuberculatus
Leidy, 1873

Leidy assigned the tooth to Archaeoceti, but without neither a stratigraphic nor a geographic locality it is virtually impossible to argue for or against this classification. The tooth was later classified as an Archaeoceti incertae sedis[4] and even a squalodont odontocete (a more recent whale), but can also be assigned to Protocetidae.[5]

References

edit
Notes
  1. ^ Leidy 1873, Plate XXXVII, Fig. 15
  2. ^ "†Pontobasileus Leidy 1873 (whale)". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  3. ^ Gillette 1975, p. 65
  4. ^ Kellogg 1936, pp. 264–265
  5. ^ Hulbert et al. 1998, p. 918
Sources