Allodelphinidae is a family of primitive platanistoid river dolphins found in marine deposits in the eastern North Pacific region, Alaska, and Japan.

Description

Kimura and Barnes (2016, pp. 3–4) diagnose the family as follows:

Systematics

''Allodelphis'' and ''Zarhinocetus'' were formerly classified as members of Delphinidae and Squalodontidae in the original descriptions. In his overview of eastern North Pacific marine mammal assemblages, Lawrence Barnes noted that these two genera did not belong in those families and reassigned ''Allodelphis'' to Platanistidae, while removing ''Squalodon errabundus'' from ''

Squalodon ''Squalodon'' is an extinct genus of whales of the Oligocene and Miocene epochs, belonging to the family Squalodontidae. Named by Jean-Pierre Sylvestre de Grateloup in 1840, it was originally believed to be an iguanodontid dinosaur but has sinc ...

''. Barnes later realized that ''Allodelphis'' was more primitive than extinct members of Platanistidae and Squalodelphinidae and placed it and ''"S." errabundus'' in a separate family, Allodelphinidae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28431636 Prehistoric toothed whales Oligocene cetaceans Miocene cetaceans Rupelian first appearances Langhian extinctions Prehistoric mammal families