PBDB Taxon

Basic info	Taxonomic history	Classification	Included Taxa
Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Aetiocetidae

Mammalia - Cetacea - Aetiocetidae

Taxonomy

Aetiocetidae was named by Emlong (1966). It was considered monophyletic by Bisconti (2008).

It was assigned to Archaeoceti by Emlong (1966) and Mchedlidze (1976); to Crenaticeti by Rice (1998); to Aetiocetoidea by Sanders and Barnes (2002), Geisler and Sanders (2003), Gingerich (2005), Bouetel and Muizon (2006) and Bianucci and Landini (2007); to Mysticeti by Fordyce (1982), Barnes et al. (1985), Carroll (1988), Benton (1993), Fordyce and Barnes (1994), Fordyce et al. (1995), Barnes et al. (1995), McKenna and Bell (1997), Fordyce and de Muizon (2001), Rice (2002), Fordyce (2003), Steeman (2007), Uhen et al. (2008), Bisconti (2008) and Fitzgerald (2010); to Kinetomenta by Gatesy et al. (2022); and to Mysticeti by Rice (2009), Geisler et al. (2011), Marx et al. (2015), Marx and Fordyce (2015), Marx et al. (2016), Berta (2017), Hernández Cisneros et al. (2017), Fordyce and Marx (2018), Peredo and Pyenson (2018) and Tsai et al. (2024).

Subtaxa

Aetiocetinae, Aetiocetus, Ashorocetus, Chonecetinae, Chonecetus (syn. Morawanocetus), Fucaia, Kaaucetus, Morawanocetinae, Salishicetus, Tohoraata, Willungacetus

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1966	Aetiocetidae Emlong p. 3
1976	Aetiocetidae Mchedlidze p. 7
1982	Aetiocetidae Fordyce p. 424
1985	Aetiocetidae Barnes et al. p. 26
1988	Aetiocetidae Carroll
1993	Aetiocetidae Benton p. 762
1994	Aetiocetidae Fordyce and Barnes p. 428 figs. Table 1
1995	Aetiocetidae Barnes et al. p. 396
1995	Aetiocetidae Fordyce et al. p. 379
1997	Aetiocetidae McKenna and Bell p. 375
1998	Aetiocetidae Rice
2001	Aetiocetidae Fordyce and de Muizon p. 176
2002	Aetiocetidae Rice p. 231 figs. Table 1
2002	Aetiocetidae Sanders and Barnes p. 353
2003	Aetiocetidae Fordyce p. 156 figs. Figure 9.1
2003	Aetiocetidae Geisler and Sanders p. 27
2005	Aetiocetidae Gingerich p. 237 figs. Table 15.1
2006	Aetiocetidae Bouetel and Muizon p. 383
2007	Aetiocetidae Bianucci and Landini p. 45 figs. Table 2.1
2007	Aetiocetidae Steeman p. 880
2008	Aetiocetidae Bisconti p. 173 figs. Figure 10
2008	Aetiocetidae Uhen et al. p. 610
2009	Aetiocetidae Rice p. 235 figs. Table 1
2010	Aetiocetidae Fitzgerald p. 370 figs. Table 1
2011	Aetiocetidae Geisler et al. p. 6 figs. Table 1
2015	Aetiocetidae Marx and Fordyce figs. Figure 2
2015	Aetiocetidae Marx et al. p. 3
2016	Aetiocetidae Marx et al. p. 105
2017	Aetiocetidae Berta p. 166
2017	Aetiocetidae Hernández Cisneros et al. p. 156
2018	Aetiocetidae Fordyce and Marx p. 2 figs. Fig. 4
2018	Aetiocetidae Peredo and Pyenson p. 4
2022	Aetiocetidae Gatesy et al. p. 912
2024	Aetiocetidae Tsai et al.

Is something missing? Join the Paleobiology Database and enter the data

Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
—	Osteichthyes	()
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
subclass	Synapsida
—	Therapsida	()
infraorder	Cynodontia	()
—	Mammaliamorpha
—	Mammaliaformes
class	Mammalia

Rank	Name	Author
—	Theriamorpha	(Rowe 1993)
—	Theriiformes	()
—	Trechnotheria
—	Cladotheria
—	Zatheria
subclass	Tribosphenida	()
subclass	Theria
—	Eutheria	()
—	Placentalia
—	Boreoeutheria
—	Laurasiatheria
—	Scrotifera
—	Euungulata
—	Artiodactylamorpha
—	Artiodactyla	()
—	Whippomorpha
order	Cetacea
—	Pelagiceti
—	Neoceti
suborder	Mysticeti
family	Aetiocetidae
family	Aetiocetidae

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

Fm. †Aetiocetidae Emlong 1966

show all | hide all

G. †Aetiocetus Emlong 1966

hide

†Aetiocetus cotylalveus Emlong 1966

†Aetiocetus polydentatus Barnes et al. 1995

†Aetiocetus weltoni Barnes et al. 1995

G. †Ashorocetus Barnes et al. 1995

hide

Invalid names: Ashorocetus eguchii Barnes et al. 1995 [nomen dubium]

G. †Chonecetus Russell 1968

hide

†Chonecetus sookensis Russell 1968

†Chonecetus tomitai Barnes et al. 1995

†Chonecetus yabukii Barnes et al. 1995

Invalid names: Morawanocetus Barnes et al. 1995 [synonym]

G. †Fucaia Marx et al. 2015

hide

†Fucaia buelli Marx et al. 2015

†Fucaia goedertorum Barnes et al. 1995

†Fucaia humilis Tsai et al. 2024

G. †Kaaucetus Hernández-Cisneros 2022

hide

†Kaaucetus thesaurus Hernández-Cisneros 2022

G. †Salishicetus Peredo and Pyenson 2018

hide

†Salishicetus meadi Peredo and Pyenson 2018

G. †Tohoraata Boessenecker and Fordyce 2015

hide

†Tohoraata raekohao Boessenecker and Fordyce 2015

†Tohoraata waitakiensis Marples 1956

G. †Willungacetus Pledge 2005

hide

Invalid names: Willungacetus aldingensis Pledge 2005 [nomen dubium]

Invalid names: Aetiocetinae Barnes et al. 1995 [empty], Chonecetinae Barnes et al. 1995 [empty], Morawanocetinae Barnes et al. 1995 [empty]

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
L. G. Barnes et al. 1995	A family of Mysticeti with functional teeth in the adult stage in both the palate and dentary; cranium with premaxilla elevated a t anterolateral corner of nasal bone, parietals exposed in the intertemporal region; sharp margin present a t the base of the temporal fossa a t front edge of squamosal fossa; tubercle present a t posterior margin of temporal fossa continuous with lambdoidal crest; squamosal fossa present and large; elongate, uninflated zygomatic process of squamosal; elliptical notch in the posterior margin of the palatine bone; anterior process of periotic closely appressed to medial side of styliform process of squamosal; carotid foramen perforating basioccipital present and of relatively large diameter; peribullary air sinus large; jugular notch shallow; coronoid process of dentary large and lobate.