Ocucajea

Ocucajea; Temporal range: Middle Eocene (Divisaderan), 40.4–37.2 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Infraorder:	Cetacea
Family:	†Basilosauridae
Genus:	†Ocucajea; Uhen et al. 2011
Species:	†O. picklingi
Binomial name
	†Ocucajea picklingi; Uhen et al. 2011

Ocucajea is an extinct genus of basilosaurid cetacean from Middle Eocene (Bartonian stage) deposits of southern Peru. Ocucajea is known from the holotype MUSM 1442, a partial skeleton. It was collected in the Archaeocete Valley site, from the Paracas Formation of the Pisco Basin about 40.4 to 37.2 million years ago.^[1]

The genus was named after the town Ocucaje in the Ica Province near the type locality, and the species after José Luis Pickling Zolezzi, naturalist, artist, and a vital contributor to Peruvian palaeontology.^[2]

Ocucajea is smaller than all other dorudontines. It differs from Saghacetus and Dorudon in cranial morphology; in Ocucajea the nasals extends further posteriorly than the maxillae, and there is no narial process of the frontal like in Saghacetus.^[3]

References

^ Ocucajea at Fossilworks.org
^ Uhen et al. 2011, Etymology, p. 963
^ Uhen et al. 2011, Diagnosis, p. 963

Bibliography

Uhen, Mark D.; Pyenson, Nicholas D.; Devries, Thomas J.; Urbina, Mario; Renne, Paul R. (2011). "New Middle Eocene Whales from the Pisco Basin of Peru". Journal of Paleontology. 85 (5): 955–969. Bibcode:2011JPal...85..955U. doi:10.1666/10-162.1. hdl:10088/17509. OCLC 802202947. S2CID 115130412.

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[FWOcucajea-1] Ocucajea at Fossilworks.org

[2] Uhen et al. 2011, Etymology, p. 963

[3] Uhen et al. 2011, Diagnosis, p. 963

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