Kentriodon is an extinct genus of toothed whale related to modern-day dolphins. Fossils have been found in North America, Europe and Japan. Several species have been described.
Description
Kentriodon was the most diverse of all the kentriodontids, which are represented by seventeen described genera. These were small to medium-sized odontocetes with largely symmetrical skulls, and thought likely to include ancestors of some modern species. Kentriodon is also the oldest described kentriodontid genus, reported from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene.
Kentriodontines ate small fish and other nectonic organisms; they are thought to have been active echolocators, and might have formed pods. The diversity, morphology and distribution of fossils appear parallel to some modern species.
Species Kentriodon pernix Kellogg, 1927 (type)R. Kellogg. 1927. Kentriodon pernix, a Miocene porpoise from Maryland. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 69(19):1-14 Kentriodon fuchsii (Brandt, 1873)J. F. Brandt. 1873. Untersuchungen über die fossilen und subfossilen cetaceen Europa's. Mémoires de L'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Petersbourg, Series 7 20(1):1-372 Kentriodon hobetsu Ichishima, 1995H. Ichishima. 1995. A new fossil kentriodontid dolphin (Cetacea; Kentriodontidae) from the Middle Miocene Takinoue Formation, Hokkaido, Japan. The Island Arc 3:473-485 Kentriodon obscurus (Kellogg, 1931)R. Kellogg. 1931. Pelagic mammals of the Temblor Formation of the Kern River region, California. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 19(12):217-397 Kentriodon schneideri Whitmore and Kaltenbach, 2008F. C. Whitmore and J. A. Kaltenbach. 2008. Neogene Cetacea of the Lee Creek Phosphate Mine, North Carolina. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication 14:181-269 Kentriodon diusinus Salinas-Márquez, Barnes, Flores-Trujillo, Aranda-Manteca, 2014F. M. Salinas-Marquez, L. G. Barnes, J. G. Flores-Trujillo and F. J. Aranda-Manteca. 2014. Una especie de delfín fósil (Cetacea; Delphinoidea; Kentriodontoidae) del Mioceno Medio de Baja California. Boletin de la Sociedad Geologica Mexicana 66(1):145-164 Kentriodon hoepfneri Kazár & Hampe, 2014Emese Kazár and Oliver Hampe (2014). "A new species of Kentriodon (Mammalia, Odontoceti, Delphinoidea) from the middle/late Miocene of Groß Pampau (Schleswig-Holstein, North Germany)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34 (5): 1216–1230. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.857347. Kentriodon nakajimai Kimura & Hasegawa, 2019Kimura, T., & Hasegawa, Y. (2019). A new species of Kentriodon (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Kentriodontidae) from the Miocene of Japan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 39(1), e1566739. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2019.1566739 Kentriodon sugawarai Guo & Kohno, 2021
See also
Evolution of cetaceans
References
Further reading Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Perrin, Würsig, Thewissen The Evolution of Whales, Adapted from National Geographic, November 2001