Llanocetidae
Llanocetidae is an extinct family of ancient toothed baleen whales from the Eocene. It was named by American paleontologist Edward Mitchell in 1989 after describing the Antarctic ''Llanocetus'', but a 2018 study by paleontologists Ewan Fordyce Robert Ewan Fordyce (14 July 1953 – 10 November 2023) was a New Zealand palaeontologist. He specialised in the evolution of whales, dolphins, and early penguins. Life and career Fordyce joined the Department of Geology at the University of ... and Felix Marx included the Peruvian '' Mystacodon'' and an undescribed New Zealand specimen OU GS10897. References Baleen whales Eocene cetaceans Fossil taxa described in 1989 {{Paleo-whale-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Baleen Whales
Baleen whales (), also known as whalebone whales, are marine mammals of the order (biology), parvorder Mysticeti in the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises), which use baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their mouths to sieve plankton from the water. Mysticeti comprises the family (biology), families Balaenidae (right whale, right and Bowhead whale, bowhead whales), Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale) and Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale). There are currently 16 species of baleen whales. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from Mesonychia, mesonychians, molecular phylogenetics, molecular evidence instead supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 mya (unit), million years ago. Baleen whales range in size from the and pygmy right whale to the and blue whale, the Largest organisms, largest known animal to have ever existed. They ar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Llanocetus
''Llanocetus'' ( "Llano's whale" ) is a genus of extinct toothed baleen whales from the Late Eocene of Antarctica. The type species, ''Llanocetus denticrenatus'', reached gigantic proportions, with the juvenile specimen reaching an estimated in length; a second, unnamed species, known only from three isolated premolar teeth, reached an estimated total body length of up to . Like other contemporary baleen whales of the Eocene, ''Llanocetus'' completely lacked baleen in its jaws. It was probably a suction feeder like the modern beaked whale, beaked and pygmy right whale, pygmy right whales. History ''Llanocetus'' was described in 1989 by paleontologist Edward Mitchell (paleontologist), Edward Mitchell based on a partial mandible with two teeth, specimen National Museum of Natural History, USNM 183022, and an endocast of the braincase, referred to the same specimen, from the La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, Antarctica. They were excavated in 1974–75 by a joint team from the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mystacodon
''Mystacodon'' is a genus of toothed baleen whale from the Late Eocene Yumaque Member of Paracas Formation (previously called as Yumaque Formation) of the Pisco Basin in southwestern Peru. It is the oldest known baleen whale, and was probably a suction feeder of small prey on the seafloor. Taxonomy ''Mystacodon'' is the oldest known baleen whale, the holotype specimen dating to 36.4 million year ago to the Priabonian of the latest Eocene. The holotype, MUSM 1917, comprises the braincase, teeth, the spinal cord excluding the sacral vertebrae, some fin bones, and the left hip bone. It was originally classified into its own family, Mystacodontidae, but it was moved to the family Llanocetidae in 2018 alongside ''Llanocetus''–the second-oldest baleen whale–and an undescribed New Zealand specimen OU GS10897. The genus name, ''Mystacodon'' is said to be derived from ancient Greek ''mystacos'' "moustache" and odontos "tooth". The proper words in ancient Greek for "moustache" a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Late Eocene
The Priabonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS's geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or the upper stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Eocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans the time between . The Priabonian is preceded by the Bartonian and is followed by the Rupelian, the lowest stage of the Oligocene. ''Priabona florissantius, Priabona'', an extinct dipteran of Pipunculidae family, is named after Priabonian, the age of deposits from which this insect is known. History and naming The Priabonian Stage was introduced in scientific literature by Ernest Munier-Chalmas and Albert de Lapparent in 1893. The stage is named after the small hamlet of Priabona (Monte di Malo), Priabona in the community of Monte di Malo, in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Stratigraphic definition The base of the Priabonian Stage is at the first appearance datum, first appearance of calcareous nannoplankton species ''Chiasmolithus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Smithsonian Museum Of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 million visitors in 2023, it was the third most-visited museum in the United States. Opened in 1910, the museum on the National Mall was one of the first Smithsonian buildings constructed exclusively to hold the national collections and research facilities. The main building has an overall area of with of exhibition and public space and houses over 1,000 employees. The museum's collections contain over 146 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, the largest natural history collection in the world. It is also home to about 185 professional natural history scientists—the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of natural and cultural hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Edward Mitchell (paleontologist)
Edward Mitchell may refer to: *Edward Page Mitchell (1852–1927), American writer *Edward Mitchell (Irish politician) (1852–1921), member of parliament for North Fermanagh, 1903–1906 *Edward Fancourt Mitchell (1855–1941), Australian lawyer *Edward Mitchell (Scottish politician) (1879–1965), British member of parliament for Paisley, 1924–1929 *Edward Mitchell (pianist) (1891–1950), British pianist and composer known for his interpretations of Russian music *Edward Mitchell (footballer) (1892–1916), English footballer * Edward Mitchell (New York politician) (1842–1909), American lawyer and politician from New York * Edward H. Mitchell (1867–1932), American businessman and postcard publisher *Ed Mitchell (rower) (1901–1970), American rower * E. A. Mitchell (Edward Archibald Mitchell, 1910–1979), U.S. representative from Indiana, military leader and businessman *Ed Mitchell (Edward Frederick Mitchell, born 1953), British former television presenter and news reader ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Family (biology)
Family (, : ) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family—or whether a described family should be acknowledged—is established and decided upon by active taxonomists. There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to a lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', 'Eos, Dawn') and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.See: *Letter from William Whewell to Charles Lyell dated 31 January 1831 in: * From p. 55: "The period next antecedent we shall call Eocene, from ήως, aurora, and χαινος, recens, because the extremely small proportion of living species contained in these strata, indicates what may be considered the first commencement, or ''dawn'', of the existing state of the animate creation." The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isoto ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ewan Fordyce
Robert Ewan Fordyce (14 July 1953 – 10 November 2023) was a New Zealand palaeontologist. He specialised in the evolution of whales, dolphins, and early penguins. Life and career Fordyce joined the Department of Geology at the University of Otago in 1982 and retired in 2021. During his career, he was involved in the discovery and description of many fossil species, including the giant penguin '' Kairuku'' and the ancient whale ''Llanocetus''. He also had a new species of giant penguin named for him, '' Kumimanu fordycei'', which was described in 2023. In 2012, Fordyce was awarded the Hutton Medal for "his seminal contributions in New Zealand vertebrate paleontology, notably in relation to the occurrence, taxonomy and display of fossil marine mammals such as whales and dolphins and of penguins". In 2019, he won the McKay Hammer Award for a 2016 paper he co-authored with Robert W. Boessenecker reviewing early baleen whales (Eomysticetidae Eomysticetidae is a family of extin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Otago Museum
Otago (, ; ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government region. Its population was The name "Otago" is the local southern Māori dialect pronunciation of " Ōtākou", the name of the Māori village near the entrance to Otago Harbour. The exact meaning of the term is disputed, with common translations being "isolated village" and "place of red earth", the latter referring to the reddish-ochre clay that is common in the area around Dunedin. "Otago" is also the old name of the European settlement on the harbour, established by the Weller Brothers in 1831, which lies close to Otakou. The upper harbour later became the focus of the Otago Association, an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland, notable for its adoption of the principle that ordinary people, not the landowner, should choose the ministers. Major ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eocene Cetaceans
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', 'Dawn') and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.See: *Letter from William Whewell to Charles Lyell dated 31 January 1831 in: * From p. 55: "The period next antecedent we shall call Eocene, from ήως, aurora, and χαινος, recens, because the extremely small proportion of living species contained in these strata, indicates what may be considered the first commencement, or ''dawn'', of the existing state of the animate creation." The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |