Rayanistes

Rayanistes; Temporal range: Middle Eocene, 45–41 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:	†Remingtonocetidae
Genus:	†Rayanistes; Bebej, Zalmout, El-Aziz, Antar, and Gingerich, 2016
Species:	†R. afer
Binomial name
	†Rayanistes afer; Bebej, Zalmout, El-Aziz, Antar, and Gingerich, 2016

Rayanistes is a genus of remingtonocetid whale from the Middle Eocene deposits in Egypt.

Significance and biology

Rayanistes was capable of extensive power strokes during pelvic paddling, based on the robust hindlimb and innominate. The more abducted orientation of its femur allowed for greater maneuverability of the hip joint in contrast to that of Remingtonocetus. The discovery of Rayanistes is significant because it shows that the most primitive non-pelagicete cetaceans were becoming widespread beyond the southern margin of the ancient Tethys sea.^[1]

References

^ Ryan M. Bebej, Iyad S. Zalmout, Ahmed A. Abed El-Aziz, Mohammed Sameh M. Antar and Philip D. Gingerich (2016). "First remingtonocetid archaeocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the middle Eocene of Egypt with implications for biogeography and locomotion in early cetacean evolution". Journal of Paleontology. in press. doi:10.1017/jpa.2015.57.

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[1] Ryan M. Bebej, Iyad S. Zalmout, Ahmed A. Abed El-Aziz, Mohammed Sameh M. Antar and Philip D. Gingerich (2016). "First remingtonocetid archaeocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the middle Eocene of Egypt with implications for biogeography and locomotion in early cetacean evolution". Journal of Paleontology. in press. doi:10.1017/jpa.2015.57.

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