Middle Miocene

Round Mountain Silt, Sharktooth Hill Bonebed

Ernst Ranch, Bakersfield, CA, USA

Nice 3.75 inch vertebra.

Mammal, Cetacean.

Tiphyocetus was a primitive baleen whale that lived during the Middle to Late Miocene.  It’s remains have been found in Mexico and California (best-known from the Sharktooth Hill Bonebed).

The Middle Miocene was a time when whales were still rather primitive in relation to the modern fauna with many now-extinct groups being common.  Tiphyocetus was one of the larger baleen whales of that time, reaching perhaps 25-30 feet in length.  The earliest members of the Balaenopteridae, the family that includes much larger whales such as the blue whale, would not appear for at least another five million years.