''Auroracetus'', from ''Aurora'' (the location the holotype was discovered, Aurora N.C.) and the Latin ''cetus'' (whale), is a genus of Pontoporiidae, the
river dolphin
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 r ...
s, and contains one extinct
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
. The species ''Auroracetus bakerae'' was published in 2009.
Taxonomic history
Holotype specimen
The original specimen of ''A. bakerae'' was donated to the Smithsonian by Aura Baker, aided by Wayne Baker. The specimen consists of a fragmentary skull from a juvenile individual. The nasal passages (the nose or "blowhole") as well as the back of the skull were preserved, however the rostrum and basicranium were not. Classification as a new genus and species was based on the odd shape of its nasal bones, the lack of any ridge along the edges of the skull as seen in other
river dolphin
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 r ...
s, and the width of the sutures, or spaces, between facial bones. The specimen was collected from the Lee Creek Mine in Aurora, North Carolina. The skull was reconstructed by Matthew Gibson, and formally described by Gibson and Jonathan Geisler in the 2009.
Referred specimen
A second specimen was recovered by a team from
Georgia Southern University
Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hine ...
and described alongside the
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...
. This specimen, a small fragment of the nasal area, was determined to be from an adult individual based on size and the more complete fusion of the bone material.
See also
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Evolution of cetaceans
The evolution of cetaceans is thought to have begun in the Indian subcontinent from even-toed ungulates 50 million years ago (mya) and to have proceeded over a period of at least 15 million years. Cetaceans are fully aquatic marine mammals ...
*
List of cetaceans
Cetacea is an infraorder that comprises the 94 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. It is divided into toothed whales (Odontoceti) and baleen whales (Mysticeti), which diverged from each other in the Eocene some 50 mya (unit), million years ...
*
List of extinct cetaceans
The list of extinct cetaceans features the extinct genera and species of the order Cetacea. The cetaceans ( whales, dolphins and porpoises) are descendants of land-living mammals, the even-toed ungulates. The earliest cetaceans were still hoofe ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q18205284
River dolphins
Prehistoric monotypic mammal genera
Prehistoric cetacean genera