''Mycteriacetus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of dolphin from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) of northeastern Italy. The type species is ''M. bellunensis''.

Etymology

''Mycteriacetus'' is named after the

Yellow-billed stork The yellow-billed stork (''Mycteria ibis''), sometimes also called the wood stork or wood ibis, is a large African wading stork species in the family Ciconiidae. It is widespread in regions south of the Sahara and also occurs in Madagascar. Taxo ...

(''Mycteria ibis'') because the bill of that species is as long as the rostrum of ''Mycteriacetus''.

Taxonomy

''Mycteriacetus bellunensis'' was originally named as a new species of '' Eurhinodelphis'', ''E. bellunensis'', by Pilleri (1985). However, Bianucci and Landini (2002) transferred this species to '' Argyrocetus'', creating the new combination ''A. bellunensis''.G. Bianucci and W. Landini. 2002. Change in diversity, ecological significance and biogeographical relationships of the Mediterranean Miocene toothed whale fauna. Geobios Mémoire spécial 24:19-28 Lambert (2004) eventually recognized ''E. bellunensis'' as sufficiently distinct from ''Eurhinodelphis'' and ''Argyrocetus'' to warrant a new genus, ''Mycteriacetus''.

References

Prehistoric toothed whales Prehistoric cetacean genera Fossil taxa described in 2004 {{paleo-whale-stub