The extinct cetacean genus Idiocetus ("unique whale") belonged to the Balaenidae family.
Discovery
This genus's first fossils were discovered in Piacenzian (Upper Pliocene) strata close to Montopoli in the Tuscan town of Val d'Arno (central Italy). The whale was first described by the Italian paleontologist Giovanni Capellini in 1876, who also established the type species Idiocetus guicciardinii by assigning it to a new genus and species. A few decades later, in 1926, further fossilized remnants from Japan's Upper Miocene Tortonian period that may have belonged to the species were found.
Atlas of Idiocetus.
Sources