Anatomy: Rodhocetus, along with most other early whales, would not have resembled any modern mammals. The skull of Rodhocetus is very long and narrow, with differently shaped canines, premolars, and molars (heterodont condition).
Rodhocetus (from Rodho, the geological anticline at the type locality, and cetus, Latin for whale) [1] is an extinct genus of protocetid early whale known from the Lutetian of Pakistan. [2]
At left, the ankle bones of two middle Eocene protocetid archaeocetes, Rodhocetus balochistanensis (left) and Artiocetus clavis (right) from Pakistan, compared to those of the pronghorn Antilocapra americana (center).
Rodhocetus was a genus of prehistoric whales which lived approximately 47 million years ago during the Early Eocene Period. It was originally discovered in the 1990s and was named by Philip Gingerich in 1994. Its name means “Rodho whale.”
Rodhocetus’ fossilized remains were found during a 1992 excavation in northern Pakistan. The excavation site is now a rocky, mountainous desert, but 50 million years ago, it was located beneath the southern edge of an immense, ancient ocean called the Tethys Sea.
2016年4月21日 · Although not as well known as Pakicetus and Ambulocetus, Rodhocetus is nonetheless important to the study of how whales evolved from land animals. Rodhocetus is but one of a slowly but steadily growing number of transitional fossil genera, but in Rodhocetus the change can actually be seen across the species ...