| Agorophius | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Parvorder: | Odontoceti |
| Family: | †Agorophiidae Godfrey et al., 2016 |
| Genus: | †Agorophius Cope, 1895 |
| Type species | |
| Agorophius pygmaeus J. P. Muller, 1849 | |
Agorophius is an extinct genus oftoothed whale that lived during theOligocene period, approximately32 million years ago, in the waters off what is nowSouth Carolina.
The holotype ofAgorophius pygmaeus,MCZ 8761, was first mentioned in an 1848 report on the geology of South Carolina by Michael Tuomey.[1] It was eventually described asZeuglodon pygmaeus byJohannes Peter Müller in 1849.[2] Louis Agassiz coined the namePhocodon holmesii for the same specimen, classifying it as an odontocete. Later authors consideredZeuglodon pygmaeus a species of eitherDorudon orSqualodon,[3][4] and in 1895Edward Drinker Cope eventually recognized it as being a distinct genus, which he namedAgorophius.[5]
Although the skull is lost and the tooth is the only extant part of MCZ 8761, Fordyce (1981) was able to diagnoseAgorophius based on existing descriptions of the skull by Muller, Cope, and Agassiz.[6] New specimens from theAshley Formation andChandler Bridge Formation have provided new data onAgorophius, distinguishing it from other Oligocene odontocetes from the US Eastern Seaboard by the condition of its intertemporal condition.[7]
Agorophius is the type genus ofAgorophiidae, named by Abel in 1914. A number of archaic odontocetes (e.g.Archaeodelphis,Microzeuglodon, andXenorophus) were previously assigned to this family, but are now recognized as belonging to distinct families (Xenorophidae).[7]