Masracetus on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Masracetus'' (from Arabic ''Masr'', "Egypt", and Greek ''ketos'', "whale") is an extinct genus of basilosaurid ancient whale known from the 
''Masracetus'' was briefly described in an addendum by and is known from just an assemblage of vertebrae and a poorly reconstructed skull from 1908. The ' type locality is the Birket Qarun Formation in Dimê (, paleocoordinates ) north of lake
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 ...
(Priabonian
The Priabonian is, in the ICS's geologic timescale, the latest age or the upper stage of the Eocene Epoch or Series. It spans the time between . The Priabonian is preceded by the Bartonian and is followed by the Rupelian, the lowest stage ...
, ) of Egypt.
''Masracetus'' was briefly described in an addendum by and is known from just an assemblage of vertebrae and a poorly reconstructed skull from 1908. The lumbar vertebrae
The lumbar vertebrae are located between the thoracic vertebrae and pelvis. They form the lower part of the back in humans, and the tail end of the back in quadrupeds. In humans, there are five lumbar vertebrae. The term is used to describe t ...
are large but relatively short (anteroposteriorly) compared to those of other archaeocetes; the diameter is almost the same as for ''Basilosaurus
''Basilosaurus'' (meaning "king lizard") is a genus of large, predatory, prehistoric archaeocete whale from the late Eocene, approximately 41.3 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). First described in 1834, it was the first archaeocete and prehisto ...
isis'' but the length is less than half of the latter. ''Masracetus'' is larger than '' Cynthiacetus'', but it is suggested that the former might be synonymized as a junior synonym with the latter.
The species name honours Richard Markgraf, palaeontologist Ernst Stromer's fossil collector, who collected the type specimen in 1905.
''Masracetus''Birket Qarun
Lake Moeris (, genitive Μοίριδος) was an ancient endorheic freshwater lake located in the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt, which persists today at a fraction of its former size as the hypersaline Lake Qarun (Arabic: بركة ق� ...
, but specimens have also been found in the Qattara Depression
The Qattara Depression () is a depression (geology), depression in northwestern Egypt, specifically in the Matruh Governorate. The depression is part of the Western Desert (Egypt), Western Desert of Egypt.
The Qattara Depression lies below sea ...
and Fayum.. Retrieved July 2013.
Notes
References
* Basilosauridae Monotypic prehistoric cetacean genera Fossil taxa described in 2007 Eocene mammals of Africa {{paleo-whale-stub