Heterocetus

Heterocetus is a dubious genus of extinct cetacean.

Heterocetus

Ghedoghedo · 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
CetotheriidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, suspension feederPBDB, for Mysticeti
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mysticeti
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mysticeti

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Miocene — about 11 of 15 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 15 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 15 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 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 0.7 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.9–9.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.4–8.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.9–8.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.4–7.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.9–7.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.4–6.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.9–6.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.4–5.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.9–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–4.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.3–3.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.3–2.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.8–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–1.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13.82 Mya2.58 Mya16.5 Mya1.3 Mya

15 occurrences of Heterocetus 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

15 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

Groote Heide — 52.04°N, 6.67°EDiest — 51.18°N, 4.83°EDiest — 51.21°N, 4.43°EBreda — 51.97°N, 6.72°EBreda — 52.15°N, 6.61°ERed Crag — 51.96°N, 1.35°E

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The named rock units Heterocetus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heterocetus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Heterocetus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

131 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Heterocetus, 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

12 references

Each of the 15 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 Heterocetus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Heterocetus 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 itCetotheriidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Capellini 1877)