Herpetocetus, VAN BENEDEN, 1872

El Adli, Joseph J., Deméré, Thomas A. & Boessenecker, Robert W., 2014, Herpetocetus morrowi (Cetacea: Mysticeti), a new species of diminutive baleen whale from the Upper Pliocene (Piacenzian) of California, USA, with observations on the evolution and relationships of the Cetotheriidae, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 170 (2), pp. 400-466 : 403-404

HERPETOCETUS VAN BENEDEN, 1872

Type species

Herpetocetus scaldiensis Van Beneden, 1872 Distribution

Late Miocene and Pliocene of California, North Carolina, Belgium, and Japan

Included species

Herpetocetus transatlanticus ( Whitmore & Barnes, 2008) , Herpetocetus bramblei ( Whitmore & Barnes, 2008) , Herpetocetus morrowi sp. nov., and Herpetocetus sp. nov. ( Oishi & Hasegawa, 1994).

Diagnosis

A genus of small-bodied mysticete with a narrowly elongated angular process of the dentary that projects well posterior to the posterior surface of the mandibular condyle; with a postparietal foramen penetrating the posteroventral corner of the parietal on the temporal wall at a triple junction amongst the parietal, squamosal, and alisphenoid; with an anteroposteriorly large alisphenoid that makes up a significant portion of the temporal wall and is exposed along the entire ventral border of the parietal; with ascending processes of the maxilla that medially abut and dorsally cover the posterior segments of the nasals; with postglenoid process that is strongly rotated anterolaterally to be aligned with the lateral edge of the skull and resulting in an anteromedially orientated glenoid fossa (synapomorphies of species of Herpetocetus ).