Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a group of extinct cetaceans, of the family Protocetidae, from the Eocene period

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Yesterday's reading was all scientifical: From Science (11 July 2008), "A Positive Test of East Antarctica-Laurentia Juxtaposition With the Rodina Supercontinent," and from the new Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (which I could finally get to, having finished the June issue), "New protocetid whales from Alabama and Mississippi, and a new Cetacean clan, Pelagiceti."

    She doesn't have anything you want to steal. Well, nothing you can touch. greygirlbeast 2008

  • Rather, the reference to a trunked whale refers to Makaracetus bidens, an unusual Pakistani protocetid described in 2005.

    Archive 2006-02-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Seven long bones would exceed the number expected in a pair of protocetid forelimbs, and so some may pertain to the hind limbs.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

  • Limited opportunity to monopolize mates suggests in turn that food and shelter were dispersed in protocetid habitats.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

  • We describe exceptional specimens of a new early middle Eocene (47.5 Ma) protocetid whale,

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

  • Basilosauridae retained protocetid-like skulls, but their hind limbs were greatly reduced, making them fully aquatic.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

  • Adult female and fetal skeletons (type) of the protocetid Maiacetus inuus

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

  • Generalized Eocene protocetid and basilosaurid Archaeoceti such as Maiacetus and Dorudon were on or near the main line of early whale evolution leading to later Mysticeti and Odontoceti, which appeared at the end of the Eocene or beginning of the Oligocene.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

  • Medium-sized protocetid archaeocete with a skeleton 2.6 m in length and an estimated weight of

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

  • Discovery of a near-term fetus positioned for head-first delivery provides important evidence that early protocetid whales gave birth on land.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

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