Cetacea

Searched as Cetacea indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Cetacea as the accepted name.

Cetaceans are marine mammals belonging to the infraorder Cetacea, a secondarily aquatic clade under the order Artiodactyla that include whales, dolphins, porpoises and extinct groups such as Basilosaurus. Most cetaceans live in marine environments, particularly the pelagic zone, but some reside solely in brackish or fresh water. Having a cosmopolitan distribution, they can be found in some rivers and all of Earth's oceans. Many species migrate seasonally over vast ranges for food advantages.

Cetacea

Gabriel Barathieu · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
Also called
whalePBDB
Sits inside
WhippomorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 476 occurrencesEocene — about 29 of 476 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 23 of 476 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 152 of 476 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 40 of 476 occurrencesPleistocene — about 86 of 476 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 6 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 5 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 5 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 8 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 7 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 7 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 8 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 9 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 16 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 28 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 28 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 22 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 13 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 17 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 26 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 27 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 222 occurrences41.03 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

476 occurrences of Cetacea on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

476 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

122 formations

Coquimbo — 30.33°S, 71.50°WAoki — 36.32°N, 137.95°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EVaqueros — 34.04°N, 120.04°WVaqueros — 33.64°N, 117.77°WVaqueros — 34.95°N, 119.18°WVaqueros — 34.33°N, 118.83°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.36°N, 118.44°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.76°N, 118.29°WOmma — 36.56°N, 136.71°EOmma — 36.49°N, 136.73°EBessho — 36.30°N, 137.97°EHarudi — 23.57°N, 68.72°EHarudi — 23.49°N, 68.72°EHarudi — 23.65°N, 68.75°EGaiman — 42.78°S, 65.04°WGaiman — 42.33°S, 65.40°WGaiman — 43.51°S, 65.18°WSanta Margarita — 37.01°N, 122.01°WSanta Margarita — 35.13°N, 118.82°WSanta Margarita — 37.05°N, 122.04°WJaffna Limestone — 8.26°N, 79.84°ESan Pedro — 33.76°N, 118.30°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WCalvert — 37.54°N, 77.43°WCalvert — 38.53°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 38.54°N, 76.70°WYorktown — 37.17°N, 76.77°WYorktown — 37.27°N, 76.71°WYorktown — 35.87°N, 77.09°WJaffna — 8.28°N, 79.82°EDomanda — 30.03°N, 70.15°EDomanda — 29.97°N, 70.12°EFyansford — 38.10°S, 144.40°EFyansford — 38.18°S, 144.50°EKarakane — 34.97°N, 132.15°EKarakane — 34.87°N, 132.05°EDogo — 36.19°N, 133.25°EDogo — 36.21°N, 133.26°ETsurushi — 38.01°N, 138.27°ETsurushi — 38.03°N, 138.24°EEsbarrondadoiro — 38.11°N, 8.36°WEsbarrondadoiro — 38.17°N, 8.17°WEl Cien — 25.35°N, 110.98°WEl Cien — 25.19°N, 110.91°WEastover — 37.69°N, 76.97°WLincoln Creek — 47.28°N, 123.52°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cetacea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 98 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 298 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cetacea and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cetacea and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,951 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,047 sites for Cetacea, and this reads 240 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

216 references

Each of the 476 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. 204 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Cetacea

Credit
Gabriel Barathieu
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
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 itWhippomorpha through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Brisson 1762)