- Description
- Additional information
Description
Zygorhiza Kochii Canine Tooth measures 4.1 inches. Zygorhiza Kochii canine tooth is museum quality polyurethane resin cast. Made in USA. Our precise tooth can be used as a teaching tool, museum tooth exhibit, home decor tooth or office decor tooth.
Zygorhiza (“Yoke-Root”) is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale known from the Late Eocene (Priabonian, 38–34 Ma) of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, United States, and the Bartonian (43–37 Ma on the New Zealand geologic time scale) to the late Eocene of New Zealand (43 to 33.9 million years ago). Specimens reported from Europe are considered Dorudontinae incertae sedis.
Zygorhiza kochii, along with Basilosaurus under the designation “prehistoric whales”, is the state fossil of Mississippi. The mounted specimen in the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon is commonly referred to as “Ziggy”.
Like other dorundontines, Zygorhiza kochii had a body similar to modern cetaceans with flipper-like forelimbs, rudimentary hind limbs, a vertebral column adapted for oscillatory swimming, and a tail fluke.
Zygorhiza kochii (and Dorudon) replaced their upper and lower deciduous first premolars with permanent teeth. This is very unusual in modern mammals and contrasts to extant toothed whales that only develop a single set of teeth.
It might indicate that Zygorhiza kochii represents a stage in archaeocete evolution where skeletal maturation was delayed like in modern cetaceans. Zygorhiza kochii differs from all other dorudontines in the presence of well-developed cuspules on the cingula of the upper premolars.
The skull is elongated with a narrow rostrum and a flattened forehead; the premaxillae are laterally convex. The high sagittal crest is flanked by two large temporal fossae, resulting in a narrow intertemporal region.
Zygorhiza kochii vertebral formula is 7 cervicals, 15 thoracics, probably 13 lumbars, 2 sacrals, and at least 21 caudals. The centra of the posterior thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and anterior caudal are slightly elongated.
The centra of the cervicals are compressed and the flexibility in the neck is limited by the interlocked lateral processes. The atlas has a hypapophysial (ventral) process. The axis, a small odontoid (tooth-like) process, short and narrow transverse processes, and an elongated neural spine.
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Additional information
| Weight | 2 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 4.1 in |
| Zygorhiza kochii Facts | Scientific classification |
