Arktocara yakataga

Arktocara is an extinct genus of river dolphin from the Oligocene epoch of Alaska, containing one species, A. yakataga. Having been discovered in 25-million-year-old strata near the 60th parallel north, it is perhaps the oldest-known crown toothed whale and the northmost river dolphin discovered. It was a member of the now-extinct family Allodelphinidae, along with the genera Allodelphis, Goedertius, Ninjadelphis, and Zarhinocetus. It measured approximately , comparable to its closest living relative, the South Asian river dolphin, which measures . However, the animal probably had an elongated beak and neck, so it may have been longer. The animal is known only from a partially preserved skull. Its ecology may have been similar to the modern-day Dall's porpoise, and it may have competed with contemporaneous delphinoids. Its remains were found in the Poul Creek Formation, which has also yielded several mollusk species.

==Taxonomy== The type specimen, the only specimen, of Arktocara yakataga, an incomplete skull, was collected by geologist Donald J. Miller in 1951 in the Poul Creek Formation, who was mapping the Yakataga District, from where the species name yakataga derives from, on behalf of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The genus name Arktocara derives from Ancient Greek arktos (north) and cara (face), translating to "the face of the north". "Yakataga" translates to "canoe road" in the Tlingit language, which is apparently a reference to the reefs which form a canoe passage to a village. Arktocara was later described 65 years after the collection of the skull (labelled as specimen USNM 214830) by Smithsonian paleontologists Alexandra Boersma and Nicholas Pyenson in 2016, being recognized as a new species.