Eobalaenoptera

Harrisoni skeleton of Eobalaenoptera

• North America: Virginia

Eobalaenoptera harrisoni is an extinct species of baleen whales ( Mysticeti ) within the Whales ( Cetacea). He was described in 2004 by researchers at the Virginia Museum of Natural History on the basis of skeletal parts, which were in 1990 in the Miocene Calvert Formation in Coroline County, Virginia found.

Features

According to the researchers, the eleven -meter-long skeleton has both morphological characteristics of rorqual ( Balaenopteridae ) and the gray whales ( Eschtrichtiidae ) and thereby support the sister group relationship of these two taxa. The age of the skeleton was estimated at about 14 million years, and it thus represents the oldest known fossil of the species of the gray and rorquals represents the separation of this group from the other baleen whales was due to molecular biological studies (molecular clock ) to a time before about estimated 25 million years ago.

The name was due to the similarities between the skeleton and members of the genus Balaenoptera, the prefix eo- identifies as a precursor of this group. The species was named after Carter Harrison, a deserving employees of the museum.