Phoberodon


Phoberodon is an extinct genus of archaic odontocete cetacean from the Early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina.

Taxonomy and description

Phoberodon was described in 1926 from a partially complete skeleton with a skull lacking the earbones, which was found in the Colhuehuapian Gaiman Formation of Chubut Province, Argentina. Subsequent authors either followed Cabrera in classifying Phoberodon as a squalodontid, or considered it a relative of Waipatia although the genus was included in any cladistic analysis of archaic odontocetes. However, known specimens lack a periotic, which incorporates most defining synapomorphies of Squalodontidae, and Viglino et al. recovered Phoberodon as distantly related to Squalodon.

Palaeobiology

Palaeoecology

The morphology of its skull and its enamel ultrastructure both suggest that P. arctirostris was a raptorial feeder.