Allodelphinidae Explained

Allodelphinidae is a family of primitive platanistoid river dolphins found in marine deposits in the eastern North Pacific region, Alaska, and Japan.^{[1] [2]}

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.^{[3] [4]} 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, while removing Squalodon errabundus from Squalodon.^[5] Barnes later realized that Allodelphis was more primitive than extinct members of Platanistidae and Squalodelphinidae and placed it and "S." errabundus in a separate family, Allodelphinidae.^[6]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Fossilworks: Allodelphinidae.
2. Boersma. A. T.. Nicholas Pyenson. Pyenson. N. D.. Arktocara yakataga, a new fossil odontocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Oligocene of Alaska and the antiquity of Platanistoidea. PeerJ. 2016. 4. e2321. 10.7717/peerj.2321. 4991871. 27602287 . free .
3. Wilson . L. E. . 1935 . Miocene marine mammals from the Bakersfield region, California . The Peabody Museum of Natural History Bulletin . 4 . 1–143 .
4. Kellogg . R. . 1931 . Pelagic mammals of the Temblor Formation of the Kern River region, California . Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences . 19 . 12. 217–397 .
5. Barnes . L. G. . 1977 . Outline of eastern North Pacific fossil cetacean assemblages . Systematic Zoology . 25 . 4. 321–343 . 10.2307/2412508. 2412508 .
6. Barnes . L. G. . 2006 . A phylogenetic analysis of the superfamily Platanistoidea (Mammalia, Cetacea, Odontoceti) . Beiträge zur Paläontologie . 30 . 25–42 .