Albicetus
| Albicetus Temporal range: Langhian ~ | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of skull | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Suborder: | Whippomorpha |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Parvorder: | Odontoceti |
| Superfamily: | Physeteroidea |
| Genus: | †Albicetus Boersma & Pyenson, 2015 |
| Species: | †A. oxymycterus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Albicetus oxymycterus (Kellogg, 1925) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Albicetus is a genus of stem-sperm whales that lived during the Miocene Epoch, around 15 million years ago, and was discovered in Santa Barbara, California in 1909. It was categorized for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses erroneously thought to be sperm whales. It was named Albicetus, meaning "white whale", is a reference to the leviathan in Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel Moby-Dick.