Janjucetus

Janjucetus is an extinct genus of baleen whale that lived during the Late Oligocene (Chattian) in south-east Australia, around 25 million years ago. Remains of the genus have been found in the Jan Juc Marl in the Jan Juc Formation, near the township of the same name, and have been assigned to two species: the type species J. hunderi and J. dullardi. The locality has yielded remains of more extinct cetaceans, including Prosqualodon, Waipatia, and the related Mammalodon.

Janjucetus

Ethmostigmus · 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
MammalodontidaePBDB
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 most 4.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 27.3 Mya and 23.04 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 10 of 10 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27.8 Mya22.5 Mya

10 occurrences of Janjucetus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

10 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

2 formations

Jan Juc — 38.37°S, 144.28°EJan Juc — 38.20°S, 144.27°EJan Juc — 38.32°S, 144.32°EJan Juc — 35.97°S, 145.00°EClifton — 38.48°S, 143.58°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Janjucetus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Janjucetus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

38 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Janjucetus, 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

2 references

Each of the 10 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Janjucetus

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Janjucetus sp. · nmv:p:48867A

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 itMammalodontidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fitzgerald 2006