Diunatans: Difference between revisions

'''''Diunatans''''' is an extinct [[genus]] of [[rorqual]] [[whale]]. It lived in the [[North Sea]] during the [[Early Pliocene]]. Two specimens have been found from the [[Netherlands]]. They were collected from the [[Kattendijk Formation]] in the province of [[Zeeland]], which is [[Zanclean]] in age. ''Diunatans'' is considered to be a [[stem group|stem]] [[balaenopterid]] because it falls outside the ''[[Balaenoptera]]''+''[[Megaptera]]'' [[clade]], which includes all living rorqualsrorqual whales. Its name means "long-distance swimmer", from the [[Latin]] ''diu'' meaning "long time" or "long distance", and ''natans'', meaning "swimming." The [[type species]] is ''D. luctoretemergo'', named after the motto of Zeeland, "Luctor et Emergo" (Latin for "I struggle and I emerge").<ref name=BK10>{{cite journal |last=Bosselaers |first=M. |coauthors=and Post, K. |year=2010 |title=A new fossil rorqual (Mammalia, Cetacea, Balaenopteridae) from the Early Pliocene of the North Sea, with a review of the rorqual species described by Owen and Van Beneden |journal=Geodiversitas |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=331–363 |url=http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/front/medias/publication/27451_g10n2a6-low.pdf |doi=10.5252/g2010n2a6}}</ref>