Piscobalaena

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Piscobalaena is an extinct genus of cetaceans, which lived from the Middle to Late Miocene epochs (about 11.6 to 5.3 million years ago) in Peru and Florida. Its fossils have been found in the Pisco Formation of Peru and the Bone Valley Formation of Florida. At least some individuals of this diminutive whale were preyed on by the shark O. megalodon. This animal looked much like whales today, particularly small whales. The length was probably less than 5 metres (16 ft), and the skull of an adult was about one meter. Piscobalaena is known for some well-preserved specimens, including three young individuals and an adult. Some characteristics of the skull distinguish Piscobalaena from modern whales (such as the shape of the supraorbital process). Described for the first time in 1989 by Pilleri and Siber, Piscobalaena is known from fossils found in the Pisco Formation in Peru. Piscobalaena is considered a representative of Cetotheriidae a group of baleen whales with primitive characteristics similar to that of Balaenoptera, fossil species of which have been found mainly in the northern hemisphere. The closest relative of Piscobalaena appears to have been Herpetocetus, from the Mio-Pliocene of the northern hemisphere.