| Phoberodon Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Holotype skull | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Superfamily: | Platanistoidea |
| Family: | † Squalodontidae |
| Genus: | † Phoberodon Cabrera, 1926 |
| Type species | |
| †Phoberodon arctirostris Cabrera, 1926 | |
| Species | |
| |
Phoberodon is an extinct genus of archaic odontocete cetacean from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) of Patagonia, Argentina.
Phoberodon was described in 1926 from a partially complete skeleton with a skull (holotype MLP 5-4) lacking the earbones, which was found in the Colhuehuapian Gaiman Formation of Chubut Province, Argentina. [1] Subsequent authors either followed Cabrera (1926) in classifying Phoberodon as a squalodontid, or considered it a relative of Waipatia although the genus was included in any cladistic analysis of archaic odontocetes. [2] [3] [4] [5] However, known specimens lack a periotic, which incorporates most defining synapomorphies of Squalodontidae, and Viglino et al. (2018) recovered Phoberodon as distantly related to Squalodon . [6]
The morphology of its skull and its enamel ultrastructure both suggest that P. arctirostris was a raptorial feeder. [7]