Английская Википедия:Hoplocetus

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Automatic taxobox

Hoplocetus is an extinct genus of raptorial cetacean of the sperm whale superfamily, Physeteroidea.[1] Its remains have been found in the Miocene of Belgium, France, Germany and Malta, the Pliocene of Belgium and France, and the Pleistocene of the United Kingdom and South Carolina.[2]

Dentition

The teeth of Hoplocetus are massive (95–150 mm in length; 27–47 in maximum diameter), robust and have a short enamel cap on the crowns.[1] They are somewhat larger than those of modern orcas[3] but considerably smaller than those of macroraptorial sperm whales, such as Zygophyseter, as well as those of Scaldicetus caretti.[4] They display a large degree of abrasion, suggesting a highly predatory niche comparable to that of modern orcas.[1] The genus of the latter, Orcinus, first appears in the middle Pliocene and it may have eventually replaced Hoplocetus.[1]

These teeth features also characterize the other extinct toothed whale genera, Diaphorocetus, Idiorophus and Scaldicetus, sometimes placed with Hoplocetus in the subfamily Hoplocetinae.[5] However, some of these taxa are fragmentary and have been used as wastebasket taxa for non-diagnostic material of stem physeteroids.

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Шаблон:Odontoceti Шаблон:Taxonbar