Oryctos
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Accès privé :
| volume 6, 2006 |
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Olivier Lambert, First record of a platanistid (Cetacea, Odontoceti) in the North Sea Basin: a review of Cyrtodelphis Abel, 1899 from the Miocene of Belgium. Oryctos 6, 69-79.
The systematic status of remains of odontocetes (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of the region of Antwerp (north of Belgium, southern margin of the North Sea Basin) previously referred to the long-snouted dolphin species Cyrtodelphis sulcatus (Gervais, 1853) is revised. A number of the specimens, a rostrum, some rostral and mandibular fragments, probably dated from the late Early to Middle Miocene, are identified as belonging to a member of the family Platanistidae (for which the only extant genus is Platanista from rivers of north-eastern Asia), more precisely to the subfamily Pomatodelphininae. This is the first platanistid record from the North Sea Basin. Another fragment of skull is referred to Kentriodontidae incertae sedis. An isolated tympanic bulla belongs to a eurhinodelphinid. The palaeoecology of the pomatodelphinines is briefly discussed, comparing their palaeogeographic range and the morphology of their feeding apparatus to the eurhinodelphinids, other long-snouted dolphins mainly known from the Miocene.
Key words: Cetacea, Odontoceti, Cyrtodelphis, taxonomy, Platanistidae, Miocene, Belgium.
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