Remingtonocetids have long and narrow skulls with the externalnare openings located on the front of the skull. Theirfrontal shields are narrow and their orbits small. Their mouth has a convexpalate and an incompletely fusedmandibular symphysis. The dental formula is3.1.4.33.1.4.3. The anterior teeth are flattened mediolaterally, making them appear shark-like.[3]
Cranial fossils are common but dental remains are rare. The postcrania morphology is based entirely on a single specimen ofKutchicetus which was small and had a long and muscular back and tail. Perhaps remintonocetids swam like the South Americangiant otter which swims with its long flat tail.[4]
With long and low bodies, relatively short limbs, their elongatedrostrum, remingtonocetids looked like mammalian crocodiles, more so thanAmbulocetus. They could both walk on land and swim in the water and most likely lived in a near-shore habitat. At least one genus,Dalanistes, had a marine diet.[2]
Remingtonocetids are often found in association with catfish and crocodilians, as well asprotocetid whales andsirenians. They were probably independent of freshwater.[4]
Remingtonocetidae was long considered endemic to the northern coastline of the ancientTethys Ocean (in present day Pakistan and India) during theEocene, but the discovery ofRayanistes in Egypt indicates that remingtonocetids had a broader distribution than previously thought.[2] A single tooth recovered from theCastle Hayne Limestone ofNorth Carolina, USA closely resembles that of remingtonocetids; if it belongs to one, it indicates that they may have been found as far west as eastern North America, expanding their distribution across theAtlantic.[5]
^Ryan M. Bebej, Iyad S. Zalmout, Ahmed A. Abed El-Aziz, Mohammed Sameh M. Antar and Philip D. Gingerich (2016). "First remingtonocetid archaeocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the middle Eocene of Egypt with implications for biogeography and locomotion in early cetacean evolution". Journal of Paleontology. in press. doi:10.1017/jpa.2015.57.
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