''Atlanticetus'' is a genus of extinct
baleen whales
Baleen whales (systematic name Mysticeti), also known as whalebone whales, are a parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals of the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) which use keratinaceous baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their m ...
known from the Early Miocene of Italy and the US Eastern Seaboard.
[
]
Species
The type species, ''Atlanticetus patulus'' was originally described as ''Aglaocetus patulus'' from the Calvert Formation by Remington Kellogg in 1968.[R. Kellogg. 1968. "A sharp-nosed cetothere from the Miocene Calvert". ''Proceedings of the United States National Museum'' 247(7):163-173.] However, it was recovered by Bisconti et al. (2013) in a different phylogenetic position than the ''Aglaocetus
''Aglaocetus'' is a genus of extinct baleen whales known from the Miocene of Patagonia, the US Eastern Seaboard, Japan and the Low Countries. It was once considered a member of Cetotheriidae along with many other putative cetotheres, but was rec ...
'' type species ''Aglaocetus moreni''.[M. Bisconti, O. Lambert, and M. Bosselaers. 2013. "Taxonomic revision of ''Isocetus depauwi'' (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti) and the phylogenetic relationships of archaic 'cetothere' mysticetes". ''Palaeontology'' 56(1):95-127.] In 2020, ''A. patulus'' was made the type species of a new genus ''Atlanticetus''. A second species, ''A. lavei'', is known from the early Miocene Gruppo Pietra da Cantoni of Piedmont, Italy.[Bisconti, M., Damarco, P., Mao, S., Pavia, M. and Carnevale, G. (2020). "The earliest baleen whale from the Mediterranean: large‐scale implications of an early Miocene thalassotherian mysticete from Piedmont, Italy". ''Papers in Palaeontology''. .]
References
Prehistoric cetacean genera
Miocene cetaceans
Miocene mammals of Europe
Fossils of Italy
Miocene mammals of North America
Neogene United States
Fossil taxa described in 2020
{{paleo-whale-stub