A FOSSIL PHYSETEEOID CETACEAN FEOM SANTA 

 BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



By Remington Kellogg 



Of the Bureau of Biological Survey, U. 8. Department of Agriculture 



The discovery of a skull of a fossil physeteroid whale anywhere 

 is worth recording, and when one is found on the Pacific Coast of 

 North America, the occurrence is all the more important in view of 

 the present inadequate record of their presence there during tertiary 

 times. The living sperm whale is almost cosmopolitan in its distri- 

 bution, and there is considerable evidence to support the assumption 

 that the geographical range of many, if not all, of the fossil repre- 

 sentatives of this family included the Pacific as well as the Atlantic 

 ocean. The suggestion may be offered here that these cetaceans, in 

 particular, will eventually prove to be very useful for purposes of 

 intercontinental geological correlation. Sooner or later, these widely 

 scattered occurrences of fossil sperm whales will assist in either cor- 

 roborating or modifying some of our concepts as to the age of various 

 marine formations. 



Comparative measurements indicate that a complete skull of this 

 species w^ill measure between 4 and 5 meters (12 and 15 feet) in 

 length. If this estimate is correct, then the skull of this species is 

 more than twice as long as that of Physodon patagonicms Lydekker 

 from a lower Miocene tuff formation on the coast of Chubut Terri- 

 tory, Patagonia, and probably represents the largest Miocene phys- 

 eteroid thus far described. This specimen is tentatively referred to 

 the genus Ontocetus of Leidy. Although only a small portion of the 

 skull is available for description at present, it obviously represents a 

 distinct type, and requires a name. 



Through the interest of Dr. J. P. Harrington of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology-, this specimen was presented to the United States Nation- 

 al Museum by Mrs. Charles O. Roe, of Santa Barbara, California. I 

 am indebted to Mr. C. W. Gilmore, curator of the Division of Verte- 

 brate Palaeontology, for the opportunity to describe this specimen. 



No. 2564. — Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 66. Art. 27. 



9120—24 1 



