Rank Genus | Phylum Chordata Order Artiodactyla | |
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Idiocetus ("unique whale") is a genus of extinct cetaceans of the family Balaenidae.
Discovery
Fossils belonging to this genus have been found for the first time in Piacenzian (Upper Pliocene) strata near Montopoli in Val d'Arno, a town in Tuscany (central Italy). The Italian paleontologist Giovanni Capellini described the whale in 1876 and attributed it to a new genus and species, establishing the type species Idiocetus guicciardinii.
Some decades later, in 1926, other fossil remains possibly belonging to the genus Idiocetus were discovered from the Tortonian (Upper Miocene) of Japan.
References
Idiocetus Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA