Romaleodelphis
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| Romaleodelphis Temporal range: Early Miocene (Aquitanian) | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Parvorder: | Odontoceti |
| Genus: | †Romaleodelphis Sanchez-Posada et al., 2024 |
| Species: | †R. pollerspoecki |
| Binomial name | |
| †Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki Sanchez-Posada et al., 2024 | |
Romaleodelphis is a genus of extinct archaic toothed whale from the Early Miocene Ebelsberg Formation of Austria. It had long and slender jaws and homodont teeth and roamed the marine waters of the Central Paratethys that once covered much of Europe. Phylogenetic analysis has shown that Romaleodelphis is most closely related to other odotontocetes previously grouped together as the "Chilcacetus clade, now a paraphyletic grade basal to true dolphins and beaked whales. The inner ear of Romaleodelphis shows that it was capable of hearing narrow-band high frequency sounds, an ability it convergently evolved with several modern types of whales. It is possible that this was a useful tool in evading other predatory whales, though some recent research suggests that it may have also been an early step in the development of the cetacean biosonar.
The holotype skull of Romaleodelphis was discovered in 1980 in the sediments of the Ebelsberg Formation during the construction of a hydroelectric powerplant near the town of Pucking, Upper Austria. At the time, several amateur paleontologists, among them Jürgen Pollerspöck, removed fossil material from the site to prevent their destruction. The total material collected for Romaleodelphis consisted of a multitude of skull fragments that were put together by the collectors as well as several postcranial remains. Put together, the skull is mostly complete but lacks the tips of the rostrum and much of the basicranium. However, while the skull material was donated to the Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns by Pollerspöck, the postcranial material was kept by other collectors and their whereabouts are currently unknown. Despite being donated in 1992, it would take another 30 years for the skull to be described, with the paper being published by Catalina Sanchez-Posada and colleagues in 2024.[1]
The name Romaleodelphis derives from the Greek "'romaléos" meaning sturdy or robust, in reference to the strong zygomatic process of the squamosal bone, and the -suffix "delphis". This suffix is commonly employed for the scientific names of dolphins and traces its meaning to the Greek "dophis" for womb, initially used to highlight the fact that unlike fish, dolphins have a uterus. The species name on the other hand references Jürgen Pollerspöck, who discovered, saved and donated the holotype fossil.[1]
Description
Romaleodelphis was a medium sized toothed whale with long and slender jaws that make up about 71% of the total skull length. The animal was homodont, meaning that like most modern toothed whales and unlike several now extinct forms that coexisted with Romaleodelphis it possessed only a single type of tooth in its jaws.[1]