Squalodon

Squalodon
Temporal range: Oligocene–Miocene
Skull of S. bariensis in Brussels
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Superfamily: Platanistoidea
Family: †Squalodontidae
Brandt, 1873
Genus: †Squalodon
Grateloup, 1840
Species

†S. grateloupii von Meyer, 1843
(Type)
†S. antverpiensis van Beneden, 1861
†S. bariensis Jourdan 1861
†S. barbarus Mchedlidze and Aslanova 1968
†S. calvertensis Kellogg 1923
†S. whitmorei Dooley 2005
†S. catulli Molin 1859

Squalodon is an extinct genus of whales of the Oligocene and Miocene epochs, belonging to the family Squalodontidae. Named by Jean-Pierre Sylvestre de Grateloup in 1840,[1] it was originally believed to be an iguanodontid dinosaur but has since been reclassified. The name Squalodon comes from Squalus, a genus of shark. As a result, its name means "shark tooth". Its closest modern relative is the South Asian river dolphin (with its two subspecies the Ganges river dolphin and Indus river dolphin).[2]

  1. ^ Grateloup, Description d'un fragment de mâchoire fossile, d'un genre nouveau de reptile (Saurien), de taille gigantesque, voisin de l'Iguanodon..., Bordeaux 1840.
  2. ^ "Shark-toothed dolphins (Family Squalodontidae)". University of Otago.