No. 3 — Types of Fossil Cetaceans in the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology. By C. R. Eastman. 



There are preserved in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, besides 

 other interesting Cetacean remains, the types and only known represen- 

 tatives of three species of Odontocetes from the middle and late Tertiary 

 formations of this country. Two of these exemplars belong to the Del- 

 phinoid, and the other to the Ziphioid division of toothed whales. One 

 of the Delphinoid types has served for the establishment of a distinct 

 genus, Lophocetus, whose characters have been insufficiently described, 

 and precise systematic relations are admitted to be uncertain. The origi- 

 nal has never been satisfactorily figured, and its companion Delphinoid 

 type, the so-called Delphinus occiduus of Leidy, has not been illustrated 

 at all. The present Bulletin is devoted principally to a consideration of 

 these two Delphinoids. 



LOPHOCETUS Cope. 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1867, p. 146. 



First described by Harlan in 1842 under the name of Delphhius calvertensis, 

 the species was made by Cope the type of Lophocetus, and placed in the vicinity 

 of Iuia and Pontoporia (= Stenodelphis). In fact, it was held to be distinguished 

 from the former of these genera only by the " cylindric form of the posterior alve- 

 olae, which renders it probable that the teeth were not furnished with lobes as in 

 Iuia. " More than a score of years later, in 1890, the same author speaks with 

 less assurance concerning its relations : " Its position is uncertain ; the skull re- 

 sembles that of Iuia, but the roots of the teeth are cylindric. The temporal 

 and occipital ridges are very strong. Skeleton unknown. " l 



Save for one or two exceptions, subsequent writers have accepted Cope's gen- 

 eral determination. Dr. Theodore Gill, in 1872, recognized Iuia and Platanista 

 as types of independent families, and provisionally placed Lophocetus among fossil 

 Iniidae. 2 The more usual practice has been to assign subfamily values to the 

 groups represented by the two modern genera, and include them under Flower's 

 comprehensive designation of Platanistids. Dr. O. P. Hay accordingly refers 

 Lophocetus, though with some reservation, to the subfamily Platanistinae. 3 On the 

 other hand Dr. E. C Case states positively that its position is with the Iniiuae 



i The Cetaeea. Amer. Nat., 1890, 24, p. 606. 



2 Arrangement of the families of Mammals. Smithson. Misc. Coll., No. 247. 



8 Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Bull. 179, U. S. Geol. Surv., 1902, p. 590. 



