A new kentriodontid dolphin (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Delphinida) from the Middle Miocene of the southeastern Pacific

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Lambert, Olivier, Oberlin, Maëlle, Muizon, Christian de, Collareta, Alberto, Urbina, Mario, Bianucci, Giovanni (2026): A new kentriodontid dolphin (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Delphinida) from the Middle Miocene of the southeastern Pacific. Geodiversitas 48 (3): 25-50, DOI: 10.5252/geodiversitas2026v48a3 ABSTRACT The origin of most modern families of dolphins and porpoises has to be found during the Early to Middle Miocene, presumably among the stock of early delphinidan forms generally attributed to the family Kentriodontidae Slijper, 1936.

The East Pisco Basin (Peru) is a major source of Miocene odontocetes (echolocating toothed cetaceans), but up to now a majority of the finds originate from the Lower Miocene Chilcatay Formation and the Upper Miocene deposits of the Pisco Formation. Apart from the poorly known early delphinidan Incacetus broggii Colbert, 1944, very little is known for the Middle Miocene layers of the Pisco Formation. Based on a sample of three skulls collected from the Langhian to Serravallian (14.7-12.6 Ma) P0 allomember of the Pisco Formation in two localities (Santa Rosa and Mal Paso) of the East Pisco Basin, we describe a new genus and species of early delphinidan, Mesokentriodon protohumboldti n. gen., n. sp.