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Herpetocetus

Mammalia - Cetacea - Cetotheriidae

Taxonomy

Herpetocetus was named by Van Beneden (1872) [Sepkoski's age data: T Mi-u]. It is not extant.

It was assigned to Balaenidae by Cope (1890) and Newton (1891); to Balaenopterinae by Lydekker (1887), Trouessart (1898) and Trouessart (1904); to Mysticeti by True (1912); to Balaenopteridae by Zittel (1925); to Cetacea by Sepkoski (2002); to Cetotheriidae by Kellogg (1928), Simpson (1945), Barnes (1977), Carroll (1988), Oishi and Hasegawa (1995), McKenna and Bell (1997), Fordyce (2003), Geisler and Sanders (2003), Bouetel (2005), Bouetel and Muizon (2006), Uhen et al. (2008), Saita et al. (2011), Bisconti et al. (2013), Goldin et al. (2014), Bisconti (2014), Goldin and Startsev (2014), Gol'din and Steeman (2015) and Berta (2017); and to Herpetocetinae by Steeman (2007), Whitmore and Kaltenbach (2008), Whitmore and Barnes (2008), Steeman (2010), Boessenecker (2013), El Adli et al. (2014), Marx and Fordyce (2015), Marx et al. (2016), Marx et al. (2016), Gol'din (2018) and Tanaka et al. (2018).

Species

H. bramblei, H. morrowi, H. scaldiensis, H. sendaicus, H. transatlanticus, Mizuhoptera fujinensis, Mizuhoptera kanayaensis

Synonyms

Mizuhoptera was named by Hatai et al. (1963).

It was synonymized subjectively with Herpetocetus by Oishi and Hasegawa (1995), Kimura and Hasegawa (2004) and Saita et al. (2011).

It was assigned to Mysticeti by McKenna and Bell (1997).
Mizuhoptera kanayaensis was named by Hatai et al. (1963). It is not extant. Its type specimen is IGPS 22095, a partial skull (periotic). Its type locality is Kanaya-machi, which is in a Miocene marine horizon in the Inagozawa Formation of Japan.

It was considered a nomen dubium by Saita et al. (2011).
Mizuhoptera fujinensis was named by Hatai et al. (1963). It is not extant. Its type specimen is IGPS 60709. Its type locality is Fujina, which is in a Miocene marine horizon in the Fujina Formation of Japan.

It was considered a nomen dubium by Saita et al. (2011).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1872	Herpetocetus Van Beneden p. 419
1887	Herpetocetus Lydekker p. 47
1890	Herpetocetus Cope p. 611
1891	Herpetocetus Newton p. 64
1898	Herpetocetus Trouessart p. 1076
1904	Herpetocetus Trouessart p. 782
1912	Herpetocetus True p. 3
1925	Herpetocetus Zittel p. 88
1928	Herpetocetus Kellogg p. 35 figs. Table 1
1945	Herpetocetus Simpson p. 104
1963	Mizuhoptera Hatai et al. p. 9 figs. Plates 1-2
1963	Mizuhoptera kanayaensis Hatai et al. p. 10 figs. Plate 2, Fig. 1, 2, 8
1963	Mizuhoptera fujinensis Hatai et al. p. 11 figs. Plate 1, fig. 2; Plate 2, fig. 10
1977	Herpetocetus Barnes p. 331
1988	Herpetocetus Carroll
1995	Herpetocetus Oishi and Hasegawa p. 443
1997	Mizuhoptera McKenna and Bell p. 374
1997	Herpetocetus McKenna and Bell p. 376
2002	Herpetocetus Sepkoski
2003	Herpetocetus Fordyce p. 165
2003	Herpetocetus Geisler and Sanders p. 27
2005	Herpetocetus Bouetel p. 139
2006	Herpetocetus Bouetel and Muizon p. 376
2007	Herpetocetus Steeman p. 875
2008	Herpetocetus Uhen et al. p. 612
2008	Herpetocetus Whitmore and Barnes p. 145
2008	Herpetocetus Whitmore and Kaltenbach p. 242
2010	Herpetocetus Steeman p. 74
2011	Herpetocetus Saita et al. p. 141
2013	Herpetocetus Bisconti et al. p. 121
2013	Herpetocetus Boessenecker p. 861
2014	Herpetocetus Bisconti figs. Figure 4
2014	Herpetocetus El Adli et al. p. 404
2014	Herpetocetus Goldin and Startsev p. 419
2015	Herpetocetus Gol'din and Steeman p. 13 figs. Figure 10
2015	Herpetocetus Marx and Fordyce p. 4
2016	Herpetocetus Marx et al. p. 22 figs. Figure 10
2016	Herpetocetus Marx et al. p. 110
2017	Herpetocetus Berta p. 168
2018	Herpetocetus Gol'din p. 23 figs. Fig. 14
2018	Herpetocetus Tanaka et al. p. 302 figs. Table 2

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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
—	Theriamorpha	(Rowe 1993)

Rank	Name	Author
—	Theriiformes	()
—	Trechnotheria
—	Cladotheria
—	Zatheria
subclass	Tribosphenida	()
subclass	Theria
—	Eutheria	()
—	Placentalia
—	Boreoeutheria
—	Laurasiatheria
—	Scrotifera
—	Euungulata
—	Artiodactylamorpha
—	Artiodactyla	()
—	Whippomorpha
order	Cetacea
—	Pelagiceti
—	Neoceti
suborder	Mysticeti
—	Chaeomysticeti	()
family	Cetotheriidae	()
subfamily	Herpetocetinae
genus	Herpetocetus

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.

G. †Herpetocetus Van Beneden 1872

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†Herpetocetus bramblei Whitmore and Barnes 2008

†Herpetocetus morrowi El Adli et al. 2014

†Herpetocetus scaldiensis Van Beneden 1872

†Herpetocetus sendaicus Hatai et al. 1963

†Herpetocetus transatlanticus Whitmore and Barnes 2008

Invalid names: Mizuhoptera Hatai et al. 1963 [synonym]

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
J. J. El Adli et al. 2014	A genus of small-bodied mysticete with a narrowly elongated angular process of the dentary that pro- jects well posterior to the posterior surface of the mandibular condyle; with a postparietal foramen penetrating the posteroventral corner of the parietal on the temporal wall at a triple junction amongst the parietal, squamosal, and alisphenoid; with an anteroposteriorly large alisphenoid that makes up a significant portion of the temporal wall and is exposed along the entire ventral border of the parietal; with ascending processes of the maxilla that medially abut and dorsally cover the posterior segments of the nasals; with postglenoid process that is strongly rotated anterolaterally to be aligned with the lateral edge of the skull and resulting in an anteromedially orientated glenoid fossa (synapomorphies of species of Herpetocetus).