A new small probable Oligocene dolphin from Ecuador represents a new genus and species, Urkudelphis chawpipacha. The new taxon is known from a single juvenile skull and earbones; it differs from other archaic dolphins in features including widely exposed frontals at the vertex, a dorsally wide open vomer at the mesorostral groove, and a strongly projected and pointed lateral tuberosity of the periotic. Phylogenetic analysis places it toward the base of the largely-extinct clade Platanistoidea. The fossil is one of a few records of tropical fossil dolphins.
CITATION STYLE
Tanaka, Y., Abella, J., Aguirre-Fernández, G., Gregori, M., & Fordyce, R. E. (2017). A new tropical Oligocene dolphin from Montañita/Olón, Santa Elena, Ecuador. PLoS ONE, 12(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188380
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