Orcinus citoniensis is an extinct cetacean placed in Orcinus, the genus that also holds the living killer whale. It is known from Late Pliocene rocks near Cetona in Tuscany, Italy, and from Early Pleistocene deposits of the Red Crag Formation in England. The Italian holotype is an incomplete skeleton that Giovanni Capellini described in 1883 under the name Orca citoniensis, and the French zoologist Trouessart moved it to Orcinus in 1904. The animal was smaller than the modern orca, about 4 metres long against 7 to 10 metres, with a skull near 60 centimetres and 28 conical teeth in each jaw where the living species averages 24. It may have hunted fish and squid in cooperative pods, and it could be a transitional form between early dolphins and the modern killer whale.
Facts
Classification
System (Realm) Living or Extinct Conservation Status Connections
Child Taxon Of
Orcinus, Taxa Source Orcinus citoniensis (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Orcinus citoniensis (Wikipedia)Lead, where it livesQuote, Lead, where it lives
identified in the Late Pliocene of Italy and the Early Pleistocene of England
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Orcinus citoniensis (Wikipedia)Lead, where it livesQuote, Lead, where it lives
identified in the Late Pliocene of Italy and the Early Pleistocene of England
Sources
1. Orcinus citoniensis (Wikipedia)
Lead
Orcinus citoniensis is an extinct species of cetacean
Paleoecology
The Pliocene of Tuscany is representative of a nutrient-rich upwelling in coastal waters
Lead, where it lives
identified in the Late Pliocene of Italy and the Early Pleistocene of England
Child Taxon Of: Orcinus, Taxonomy
replaced Orca with Orcinus and described the whale as Orcinus citoniensis
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