 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2024) |
| Eolipotes Temporal range: Late Miocene
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Family: | Lipotidae |
| Genus: | †Eolipotes Kimura & Hasegawa, 2024 |
| Species: | †E. japonicus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Eolipotes japonicus Kimura & Hasegawa, 2024
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Eolipotes is an extinct genus of marine river dolphin of the family Lipotidae. It is the oldest known member of the family, having lived in what is now Japan during the Tortonian stage of the Late Miocene. Fossils of this animal are known from the Tochigi prefecture (Ogane or Tanokura Formation) and the Gunma prefecture (Haraichi Formation). Eolipotes was a small cetacean, with the skull indicating a length of around 2.17 m (7 ft 1 in). In spite of its name, Eolipoteshas been found to be more closely related to the genus Parapontoporia, which could indicate that some species of Paraprotoporia and the baiji became freshwater animals independently from one another. However it is also possible that they all evolved from ancestors that already inhabited estuaries, with Eolipotes simply becoming more marine. The genus only includes a single species: E. japonicus.