Squalodontidae closely related to the South Asian river dolphin ("Platanista gangetica"). The genus "Squalodon" was named by French naturalist Jean-Pierre Sylvestre de Grateloup in 1840 based on a jaw fragment he thought belonged to a reptile. Fossils discovered later, nevertheless, showed that this was a toothed whale. In extant odontocetes, however, the dentition is atavistic with all teeth reduced to simple, undifferentiated conical shapes. In squalodonts the teeth resemble those of the archaic whales, Archaeoceti, with conical incisors anteriorly and low-crowned, serrated teeth posteriorly. Squalodontidae Squalodontidae or the shark-toothed dolphins is an extinct family of large toothed whales who had long
Endangered Species Act of 1973 Endangered Species Act of 1973 The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is one of the few dozens of US environmental laws passed in the 1970s, and serves as the enacting legislation to carry out the provisions outlined in The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation", the ESA was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court found