Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 16, 2026

Aglaocetus

Aglaocetus is a genus of extinct baleen whales known from the Miocene of Patagonia, the US Eastern Seaboard, Japan and the Low Countries. It was once considered a member of Cetotheriidae along with many other putative cetotheres, but was recently recognized as representing a distinct family from true Cetotheriidae.

Last revised
Jul 16, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
384 w
Citations
8
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Aglaocetus
Temporal range: Early-Late Miocene
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A. moreni skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Placentalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Superfamily: Balaenopteroidea
Family: †Aglaocetidae
Steeman 2007
Genus: †Aglaocetus
Kellogg 1934
Species
Synonyms
  • Amphicetus rotundus van Beneden 1880
  • Cetotherium moreni Lydekker 1894
  • Idiocetus longifrons
  • Mesocetus latifrons
  • Plesiocetus longifrons
  • Plesiocetus latifrons

Aglaocetus is a genus of extinct baleen whales known from the Miocene of Patagonia, the US Eastern Seaboard, Japan and the Low Countries. It was once considered a member of Cetotheriidae along with many other putative cetotheres, but was recently recognized as representing a distinct family from true Cetotheriidae.

Species

Front view of A. moreni skull source ↗

There are three currently recognized valid species: Aglaocetus moreni, A. latifrons, and A. rotundus.123

The type species, Aglaocetus moreni, was originally described as a species of Cetotherium, but later recognized as generically distinct from the latter.4 "Aglaocetus" patulus, described from the Calvert Formation by Remington Kellogg in 1968,5 was recovered by Bisconti et al. (2013) in a different phylogenetic position than the Aglaocetus type species.6 In 2020, A. patulus was renamed Atlanticetus.7

Distribution

Fossils of Aglaocetus have been found in:8

Miocene
References

References

  1. R. Lydekker. 1894. Cetacean skulls from Patagonia. Anales del Museo de la Plata II:1-13
  2. P. J. Van Beneden. 1859. Rapport de M. Van Beneden. Bulletins de L'Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique 8:123-146
  3. P. J. Van Beneden. 1880. Les mysticetes a courts fanons des sables des environs d'anvers. Bulletins de L'Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique 1880:11-27
  4. R. Kellogg. 1934. The Patagonian Fossil Whalebone Whale, Cetotherium moreni (Lydekker). Carnegie Institution of Washington 447:64-81
  5. R. Kellogg. 1968. A sharp-nosed cetothere from the Miocene Calvert. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 247(7):163-173
  6. M. Bisconti, O. Lambert, and M. Bosselaers. 2013. Taxonomic revision of Isocetus depauwi (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti) and the phylogenetic relationships of archaic 'cetothere' mysticetes. Palaeontology 56(1):95-127
  7. Bisconti, M., Damarco, P., Mao, S., Pavia, M. and Carnevale, G. (2020). The earliest baleen whale from the Mediterranean: large-scale implications of an early Miocene thalassotherian mysticete from Piedmont, Italy. Papers in Palaeontology doi:10.1002/spp2.1336
  8. Aglaocetus at Fossilworks.org