Agorophius

Agorophius is an extinct genus of toothed whale that lived during the Oligocene period, approximately 32 million years ago, in the waters off what is now South Carolina.

Agorophius

Uncredited · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AgorophiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontoceti
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 33.9 Mya and 23.04 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesOligocene — about 6 of 6 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 6 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34.4 Mya22.5 Mya

6 occurrences of Agorophius on record, most of them in the Oligocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

6 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Ashley — 32.90°N, 80.13°WChandler Bridge — 32.89°N, 80.39°WChandler Bridge — 32.95°N, 80.11°W

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The named rock units Agorophius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Agorophius and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Agorophius and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

17 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Agorophius, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Agorophius

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAgorophiidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1895