Aulophyseter

Aulophyseter is an extinct genus of sperm whales from the subfamily Physeterinae that existed during the Miocene.

Aulophyseter

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
PhyseteridaePBDB
Diet
piscivore, carnivorePBDB, for Physeteridae
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti

Time the record covers

At least 4.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesMiocene20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.6–9.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.1–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.7–7.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15.98 Mya11.63 Mya20.9 Mya6.7 Mya

4 occurrences of Aulophyseter 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

4 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

4 formations

Temblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WSt Marys — 38.33°N, 76.43°WPeace River — 27.82°N, 81.82°WYamanouchi — 35.52°N, 137.08°E

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

Aulophyseter and its relatives

Miocene

Where Aulophyseter and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

7 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Aulophyseter, 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 4 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 Aulophyseter

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aulophyseter 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.

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 itPhyseteridae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kellogg 1927