Phoberodon

Phoberodon is an extinct genus of archaic odontocete cetacean from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) of Patagonia, Argentina.

Phoberodon Temporal range: Burdigalian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
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
P. arctirostris Cabrera 1926 (type)

Taxonomy and description

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]

Palaeobiology

Palaeoecology

The morphology of its skull and its enamel ultrastructure both suggest that P. arctirostris was a raptorial feeder.^[7]