Diunatans, Bosselaers & Post, 2010

Bosselaers, Mark & Post, Klaas, 2010, A new fossil rorqual (Mammalia, Cetacea, Balaenopteridae) from the Early Pliocene of the North Sea, with a review of the rorqual species described by Owen and Van Beneden, Geodiversitas 32 (2), pp. 331-363 : 335

Genus Diunatans n. gen.

TYPE SPECIES. — Diunatans luctoretemergo n. sp.

ETYMOLOGY. — Diunatans : “diu” = long time (and hence long distance-) and “natans” (> natare) = swimming (swimmer).

DIAGNOSIS. — Diunatans n. gen. is a small sized rorqual, roughly of the size of extant B. acutorostrata Lacépède, 1804 , characterised by: very short nasal; mediolaterally wide pterygoid fossa; large, robust and prominent occipital condyle; mediolaterally wide squamosal body lateral to the supraoccipital; dorsal bulge on squamosal; tympanic bulla very large compared to zygomatic width; wide, globose tympanic bulla (L/W ratio: 1.24) with sigmoid process perpendicular to long axis; rounded and bulbous pars cochlearis (L/W ratio: 1.23-1.26); very long, slender and curved stapes; massive and square basioccipital process; wide basioccipital.