Dorudon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dorudon Temporal range: late Eocene
Dorudon atrox, Senckenberg Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetacea
Suborder:	Archaeoceti
Family:	Basilosauridae
Genus:	Dorudon Gibbes, 1845

Dorudon ("spear-tooth") was a genus of ancient cetacean. It lived alongside Basilosaurus, 41 to 33 million years ago, in the Eocene.

They were about five meters (16 ft) long and were most likely carnivorous, feeding on small fish and molluscs. Dorudon lived in warm seas around the world., Fossils have been found along the former shorelines of the Tethys Sea in present-day Western Sahara, Egypt, Pakistan, the United States, and New Zealand. Most finds have been in Egypt.

Images for kids

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  Dorsal and right lateral views of reconstructed skeleton of Dorudon atrox

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  Size of Dorudon (upper left) compared to closely related basilosaurids and a human

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  Virtually complete Dorudon atrox skeleton excavated at Wadi El Hitan, displayed at the University of Michigan museum

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  Restoration

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  Dorudon hind limbs, an example of vestigial organs, at Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Washington, DC

See also

In Spanish: Dorudon para niños