Mammalodon

Name: Mammalodon ‭(‬Mammal tooth‭)‬.
Phonetic: Mam-ma-la-don.
Named By: B.‭ ‬G.‭ ‬Pritchard‭ ‬-‭ ‬1939.‭
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Mammalia,‭ ‬Cetacea,‭ ‬Mysticeti,‭ ‬Mammalodontidae.
Species: M.‭ ‬colliveri‭ (‬type‭), M. hakataramea‬.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Around‭ 2.5‭ ‬meters long.
Known locations: Australia,‭ ‬New Zealand.
Time period: Chattian of the Oligocene.
Fossil representation: Few specimens.




       Features of this cetaceans fossils indicate that Mammalodon was a baleen whale,‭ ‬although surprisingly it did not actually have baleen but instead well-developed teeth.‭ ‬Since it could not feed like baleen whales,‭ ‬Mammalodon must‭ ‬have done something different although what is uncertain.‭ ‬There is however one theory that suggests Mammalodon may have sifted through soft sediment such as mud while others consider it an open water predator.‭ ‬Mammalodon is the type genus of the Mammalodontidae and was the only member of this group until the description of Janjucetus in‭ ‬2006.

Further reading
- On the discovery of a fossil whale in the older Tertiaries of Torquay, Victoria. - The Victorian Naturalist 55(9):151-159. - B. G. Pritchard - 1939.
- A review of the Tertiary fossil Cetacea (Mammalia) localities in Australia. - Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria 61(2):183-208. - E. M. G. Fitzgerald - 2004.
- Cladistic analysis and a revised classification of fossil and recent mysticetes. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 150:875-894. - M. E. Steeman - 2007.
- The morphology and systematics of Mammalodon colliveri (Cetacea: Mysticeti), a toothed mysticete from the Oligocene of Australia. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158:367-476. - E. M. G. Fitzgerald - 2010.
- Mysticetes baring their teeth: a new fossil whale, Mammalodon hakataramea, from the Southwest Pacific. - Memoirs of Museum Victoria. 74: 107–116. - R. E. Fordyce & F. G. Marx - 2016.



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