A new tropical Oligocene dolphin from Montanita/Olon, Santa Elena, Ecuador.

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Tanaka Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5737981 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature