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First described in 1834, it was the first archaeocete and prehistoric whale known to science. [2] Fossils attributed to the type species B. cetoides were discovered in the southeastern United States. They were originally thought to be of a giant reptile, hence the suffix "-saurus", Ancient Greek for "lizard".
Some balaenopterids perhaps rivaled the blue whale in terms of size, [114] though other studies disagree that any baleen whale grew that large in the Miocene. [ 115 ] The true largest macroraptorial sperm whale is none other than the Livyatan , with an estimated length of 44–57 ft (13.5–17.5 m) and an estimated weight of 62.8 short tons (57 ...
The pakicetids were digitigrade hoofed mammals that are thought to be the earliest known cetaceans, with Indohyus being the closest sister group. [12] [16] They lived in the early Eocene, around 50 million years ago. Their fossils were first discovered in North Pakistan in 1979, located at a river not far from the shores of the former Tethys ...
Protocetus atavus ("first whale") is an extinct species of primitive cetacean from Egypt.It lived during the middle Eocene period 45 million years ago. The first discovered protocetid, Protocetus atavus was described by Fraas 1904 based on a cranium and a number of associated vertebrae and ribs found in middle Lutetian Tethyan marine limestone from Gebel Mokattam near Cairo, Egypt.
First identified as cetaceans by West 1980, the pakicetids, the most archaic of whales, had long, slender legs and a long, narrow tail, and could reach the size of a modern wolf. They have only been found in sediments from freshwater streams in northwestern India and northern Pakistan, and were probably waders rather than swimmers. [7]
The whale's remains suggest it's a smaller relative of Basilosaurus cetoides, which lived along Alabama's coast 34-40 million years ago.
Among the baleen whales found, the most common was an undescribed species of cetotheriid whale measuring around 5 to 8 m (16 to 26 ft), and most of the other baleen whales found were roughly the same size. Toothed whale remains found consist of beaked whales (such as Messapicetus gregarius), ancient pontoporiids (such as Brachydelphis mazeasi ...
Zygorhiza ("Yoke-Root") is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale known from the Late Eocene (Priabonian, 38–34 Ma) of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, United States, and the Bartonian (43–37 Ma on the New Zealand geologic time scale) to the late Eocene of New Zealand (1]