''Inticetus'' is an extinct genus of Early Miocene odontocete from the Chilcatay Formation, Pisco Basin, Peru.

Description

''Inticetus'' is distinguished from other archaic heterodont odontocetes by the following features: long and robust rostrum bearing at least 18 teeth per quadrant; the absence of procumbent anterior teeth; many large, broad-based accessory denticles in double-rooted posterior cheek teeth; a reduced ornament of dental crowns; the styliform process of the jugal being markedly robust; a large fovea epitubaria on the periotic, with a correspondingly voluminous accessory ossicle of the tympanic bulla; and a shortened tuberculum of the malleus.

Classification

''Inticetus'' was judged by Lambert et al. to be sufficiently distinct from other archaic heterodont odontocetes to be placed in a new family, Inticetidae. The authors recovered it as either outside crown Odontoceti or as an early-branching member of Platanistoidea. '' Phococetus'', previously assigned to

Kekenodontidae ''Kekenodon'' is an extinct kekenodontid early whale from the Late Oligocene ( Chattian) of New Zealand. Measuring long, it was a large raptorial whale which hunted marine mammals and penguins. Although at times classified as a basilosaurid, m ...

, is apparently a relative of ''Inticetus''.Robert W. Boessenecker (2018). Problematic archaic whale Phococetus (Cetacea: Odontoceti) from the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, USA, with comments on geochronology of the Pungo River Formation. PalZ. in press. doi:10.1007/s12542-018-0419-3.

References

Prehistoric toothed whales Prehistoric cetacean genera Miocene cetaceans Miocene mammals of South America Neogene Peru Fossils of Peru Fossil taxa described in 2017 {{paleo-whale-stub