| Eocetus Temporal range: Late Eocene | |
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| Art of Eocetus by Joshua Knüppe | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | Cetacea |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | †Protocetidae |
| Genus: | †Eocetus Fraas, 1904 |
| Type species | |
| †Eocetus schweinfurthi Eberhard Fraas, 1904 | |
| Other species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Eocetus is an extinct genus of protocetid cetacean from the early Eocene about 40 to 37 million years ago in Egypt. The type species of the genus is E. schweinfurthi, but also has a secondary species of E. drazindai. Since it was first described in the 20th century many remains have been affiliated to it but they remain dubious.
Description[]
Eocetus, like its relatives, sported a proportionally large head, stocky limbs with webbed feet, and a paddle-like tail. This animal would have spent much of its time in the water hunting for prey and traveling great expanses. While much material isn't known of the creature, other relatives provide the knowledge of its anatomy, making it quite similar to related genera.
Discovery and Naming[]
In 1904, Eberhard Fraas described what is known now was Eocetus as “Mesocetus” from some skull material along with many teeth. Georg August Schweinfurth, a German paleontologist, said that the quarries that he explored in the 1880s contained “shark teeth” and thought that they could attract tourists. It is hypothesized that this was where Fraas found his two whale teeth, and so were described without good knowledge of their locality. Despite this lack of knowledge, both the skull and teeth are estimated to be Bartonian, older and much more primitive than other known cetaceans of the area. The name Mesocetus was already used, and so the genus name was changed to Eocetus.
Classification[]
Eocetus skull morphology compared to more derived archaeocetes.
Eocetus is a mammalian even-toed ungulate housed in the family Protocetidae, which is a diverse clade that includes early whales and acts as a pivotal transition of cetaceans from semiaquatic to fully aquatic. The genus is further classified into the subfamily Georgiacetinae, which favors a tail-based locomotion over leg-based locomotion like in other protocetids. Some consider this subfamily to be transitional to the family Basilosauridae, which are fully aquatic.
Currently, Eocetus' closest relatives are Georgiacetus and Babiacetus as the most basal ancestors of the basilosaurids under the proposed clade Pelagiceti.