Pontobasileus
Genus of mammals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pontobasileus is an archaeocete whale known from a fragment of a single tooth described by Leidy 1873.[1][2] It can questionably be dated to the Eocene of Alabama.[3]
| Pontobasileus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Family: | †Protocetidae |
| Subfamily: | †Georgiacetinae |
| Genus: | †Pontobasileus Leidy, 1873 |
| Species: | †P. tuberculatus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Pontobasileus tuberculatus Leidy, 1873 | |
Leidy assigned the tooth to Archaeoceti, but without neither a stratigraphic nor a geographic locality it is virtually impossible to argue for or against this classification. The tooth was later classified as an Archaeoceti incertae sedis[4] and even a squalodont odontocete (a more recent whale), but can also be assigned to Protocetidae.[5]