Mesocetus

Mesocetus

Uncredited · via Wikidata/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
TranatocetidaePBDB
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 34 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 774 ka.

Eocene — about 5 of 39 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 39 occurrencesMiocene — about 32 of 39 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 39 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 39 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 6 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.8–8.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.4–7.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.0–5.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.6–4.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.2–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37.71 Mya3.6 Mya41.8 Mya0 Mya

39 occurrences of Mesocetus 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

39 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

10 formations

Calvert — 37.77°N, 77.28°WCalvert — 38.50°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 37.78°N, 77.52°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WSables d'Anvers — 51.21°N, 4.43°EGroote Heide — 52.04°N, 6.67°EAridal — 25.09°N, 13.89°WAridal — 25.44°N, 13.72°WStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.00°EChoptank — 38.17°N, 76.87°WChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WChilcatay — 14.62°S, 75.64°WDrazinda — 30.78°N, 70.43°EGiushi — 30.04°N, 31.28°EGaiman — 42.78°S, 65.04°W

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The named rock units Mesocetus 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.

Mesocetus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Mesocetus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

370 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Mesocetus, 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

25 references

Each of the 39 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. 13 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 Mesocetus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Mesocetus 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itTranatocetidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Van Beneden 1880