Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
295 / Cenozoic
Dorudon
Dorudon atrox
A streamlined whale body still carried tiny external hind limbs with no walking function.
View original image · 1536 × 1024- Time range
- About 40–34 million years ago
- Final stage
- Late Eocene
- Geographic range
- Warm Tethys seas · Egypt and North America
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Dorudon?
Dorudon (Dorudon atrox) was an extinct organism known from About 40–34 million years ago, with a range in Warm Tethys seas · Egypt and North America.
Life and ecology
Dorudon was a fully aquatic basilosaurid that hunted fish with powerful tail-driven swimming and flipper-like forelimbs.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Dorudon disappear?
Basilosaurids disappear from the record around the Eocene–Oligocene transition, when oceans cooled and whale communities changed; a specific cause for Dorudon is not established.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Dorudon?
Wadi Al-Hitan skeletons preserve adults and juveniles, tiny hind limbs, teeth and vertebral anatomy.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS