Allodelphinidae is a family of primitive platanistoid

river dolphins River dolphins are a polyphyletic group of fully aquatic mammals that reside exclusively in freshwater or brackish water. They are an informal grouping of dolphins, which itself is a paraphyletic group within the infraorder Cetacea. Extant rive ...

found in marine deposits in the eastern North Pacific region, Alaska, and Japan.

Description

Kimura and Barnes (2016, pp. 3–4) diagnose the family as follows:

Systematics

''Allodelphis'' and ''Zarhinocetus'' were formerly classified as members of Delphinidae and Squalodontidae in the original descriptions. In his overview of eastern North Pacific marine mammal assemblages, Lawrence Barnes noted that these two genera did not belong in those families and reassigned ''Allodelphis'' to

Platanistidae Platanistidae is a family of river dolphins containing the extant Ganges river dolphin and Indus river dolphin (both in the genus ''Platanista'') but also extinct relatives from freshwater and marine deposits in the Neogene. The Amazon river dol ...

, while removing ''Squalodon errabundus'' from ''

Squalodon ''Squalodon'' is an extinct genus of whales of the Oligocene and Miocene epochs, belonging to the family Squalodontidae. Named by Jean-Pierre Sylvestre de Grateloup in 1840, it was originally believed to be an iguanodontid dinosaur but has since ...

''. Barnes later realized that ''Allodelphis'' was more primitive than extinct members of

and

Squalodelphinidae Squalodelphinidae is a family of primitive platanistoid river dolphins, found in marine deposits in the eastern Pacific, western Atlantic, and Europe. Description Distinguishing features of Squalodelphinidae include a moderately elongated and t ...

and placed it and ''"S." errabundus'' in a separate family, Allodelphinidae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28431636 Platanistoidea Prehistoric toothed whales Oligocene cetaceans Miocene cetaceans Rupelian first appearances Langhian extinctions Prehistoric mammal families