Hadrodelphis Explained

Hadrodelphis is an extinct genus of dolphin once assigned to the paraphyletic/polyphyletic family Kentriodontidae. Remains have been found in the middle Miocene (Langhian) Calvert Formation of United States.

Taxonomy

Harodelphis is similar to Macrokentriodon in its larger size and its large tooth diameter.^[1] Despite being traditionally assigned to Kentriodontidae, recent cladistic analyses have recovered it along with Macrokentriodon in a clade with Kampholophos as sister to crown Delphinida and more derived than Kentriodon and Rudicetus.^{[2] [3]}

Hadrodelphis poseidon was described from two isolated teeth from Miocene deposits in west-central France in 1971, but its validity was questioned by Dawson (1996).^{[4] [1]}

Notes and References

1. S. D. Dawson. 1996. A description of the skull and postcrania of Hadrodelphis calvertense Kellog 1966, and its position within the Kentriodontidae (Cetacea; Delphinoidea). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16(1):125-134.
2. Olivier Lambert, Giovanni Bianucci, Mario Urbina, Jonathan H. Geisler; A new inioid (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Delphinida) from the Miocene of Peru and the origin of modern dolphin and porpoise families. Zool J Linn Soc 2017; 179 (4): 919-946. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12479. https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/179/4/919/3076080/A-new-inioid-Cetacea-Odontoceti-Delphinida-from?guestAccessKey=3b956b95-d215-488a-8d90-1cff59554290#63703008
3. Post K, Louwye S, Lambert O. (2017) Scaldiporia vandokkumi, a new pontoporiid (Mammalia, Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the Late Miocene to earliest Pliocene of the Westerschelde estuary (The Netherlands) PeerJ 5:e3991 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3991
4. GINSBURG, L. & JANVIER, P., 1971: Les mammifères marins des faluns miocènes de la Touraine et de l’Anjou.-Bull. Mus. Nat. d’Hist. Nat., Sci. de la Terre, 6(22): 161-195.