Argyrocetus

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
- OdontocetiPBDB
- 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 least 11 million years on record.
The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 5.333 Mya.
12 occurrences of Argyrocetus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
12 occurrencesThese 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
6 formations
- Jewett Formation6
- Pietra Leccese Formation2
- Drakes Bay Formation1
- Skooner Gulch Formation1
- Gaiman Formation1
- Chilcatay Formation1
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The named rock units Argyrocetus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Argyrocetus and its relatives
MioceneWhere Argyrocetus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
164 taxa- Carcharodon hastalis3 sites
- Eurhinodelphinidae3 sites
- Scaldicetus grandis3 sites
- Squalodontidae3 sites
- Alopias vulpinus2 sites
- Crassostrea titan2 sites
- Dallocardia vaquerosense2 sites
- Kentriodontidae2 sites
- Megachasma applegatei2 sites
- Odontoceti2 sites
- Orycterocetus2 sites
- Palaeospheniscus2 sites
- Physeteroidea2 sites
- Pinnipedia2 sites
- Vertipecten bowersi2 sites
- Vertipecten perrini2 sites
- Acipenseriformes1 site
- Allodelphis pratti1 site
- Allodesmus kernensis1 site
- Alopias exigua1 site
- Alopias latidens1 site
- Alopias superciliosus1 site
- Amiantis mathewsoni1 site
- Anadara montereyana1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Argyrocetus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
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
9 references- Miocene marine mammals from the Bakersfield region, California4
- New data on archaic homodont odontocetes from the Early Miocene of Peru reveal a second species of Chilcacetus Lambert, Muizon &, Bianucci, 2015 and a Southern Hemisphere record for a northeastern Pacific species1
- Studies on the Miocene toothed whale fauna from the Pietra Leccese (South Italy): the state of the art1
- I cetaci fossili del Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Universita di Pisa1
- Fossil enaliarctine pinnpeds (Mammalia: Otariidae) from Pyramid Hill, Kern County, California)1
- Sirenian evolution in the North Pacific Ocean1
- Outline of eastern North Pacific fossil cetacean assemblages1
- A Miocene long-beaked porpoise from California1
- Cetacean skulls from Patagonia1
Each of the 12 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. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1

Picture of Argyrocetus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
No 3D scan of Argyrocetus was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itOdontoceti through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lydekker 1894