Xenorophus is a genus of primitive odontocete from late Oligocene (Chattian) marine deposits in South Carolina. It belongs to the Xenorophidae.
Classification
Xenorophus was originally described on the basis of a skull from the Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina in the collections of the USNM.[1] Later authors, but also Remington Kellogg who described the genus, classified it in the family Agorophiidae, which eventually became a repository for primitive odontocetes. Whitmore and Sanders (1977) and Fordyce (1981), however, preferred to treat Xenorophus as Odontoceti incertae sedis.[2][3][4][5] A cladistic analysis by Mark Uhen published in 2008 recognized Xenorophus as belonging with Archaeodelphis and Albertodelphis in an odontocete clade more primitive than Agorophius or Simocetus, and named it Xenorophidae.[6]
Paleobiology
Xenorophus was capable of echolocation like modern dolphins, judging from the cranial features of two other xenorophids, Echovenator and Cotylocara[7][8] and from the shape of its own skull.[9] It had an estimated body length of 2.6 to 3 metres (8 ft 6 in to 9 ft 10 in).[9]
References
^R. Kellogg. 1923. Description of an apparently new toothed cetacean from South Carolina. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 76(7):1-7
^R. Kellogg. 1928. The History of Whales - Their Adaptation to Life in the Water. The Quarterly Review of Biology 3(1):29-76.
^F. C. Whitmore and A. E. Sanders. 1977. Review of the Oligocene Cetacea. Systematic Zoology 25:304-320.
^R. E. Fordyce. 1981. Systematics of the odontocete whale Agorophius pygmaeus and the Family Agorophiidae (Mammalia: Cetacea). Journal of Paleontology 55(5):1028-1045.
^G. G. Simpson. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 85:1-350.
^Uhen, M.D. (2008). "A new Xenorophus-like odontocete cetacean from the Oligocene of North Carolina and a discussion of the basal odontocete radiation". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4): 433–452. doi:10.1017/S1477201908002472. S2CID86668273.