Delphinoidea

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

Delphinoidea are the largest group of toothed whales, including 66 genera in 6 families. The largest living member of the superfamily is the orca, which can reach 6 tons, while the smallest is the vaquita.

Delphinoidea

Fjord&Bælt · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
DelphinidaPBDB
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 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 37 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 30 of 37 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 37 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 37 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.6–4.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

37 occurrences of Delphinoidea 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

37 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

22 formations

Chagres Sandstone — 9.29°N, 80.04°WMonterey — 33.59°N, 117.71°WDam — 26.36°N, 49.46°ESanta Margarita — 35.45°N, 120.28°WPisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WGram — 53.52°N, 10.56°EWhaler's Bluff — 38.36°S, 141.60°EPort Campbell Limestone — 38.37°S, 141.63°EHaratajino — 36.17°N, 138.67°EKokoamu Greensand — 44.68°S, 170.49°EBlue Clay — 35.91°N, 14.34°EUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.95°N, 14.34°EUpper Main Phosphorite Conglomerate — 35.91°N, 14.33°ESan Mateo — 33.21°N, 117.38°WBahía Inglesa — 27.04°S, 70.79°WYamato — 44.60°N, 142.04°EMiramar — 5.19°S, 80.63°WAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WBessho — 36.32°N, 137.97°EAoki — 36.31°N, 137.95°EHorcón — 32.70°S, 71.46°W

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The named rock units Delphinoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Delphinoidea and its relatives

Miocene

Where Delphinoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,840 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 664 sites for Delphinoidea, 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

26 references

Each of the 37 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. 14 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 content1

Picture of Delphinoidea

Credit
Fjord&Bælt
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Delphinoidea was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itDelphinida through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Flower 1865)