Arimidelphis sorbinii, il delfinide fossile del Fiume Marecchia del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona

In the Natural History Museum of Verona is kept a single specimen of fossil cetacean: the partial skeleton of a delphinid found in the Plio-Pleistocene clays of the Marecchia River (Rimini, central Italy) during paleontological excavations made in the early 80’s of the last century by Lorenzo Sorbini. The fossil, in a first time attributed to Tursiops osennae Simonelli, 1911, has been redescribed as holotype of the new genus and new species named Arimidelphis sorbinii. The description of this new cetacean supports the wide diversification of the delphinids in the Mediterranean during the Plio-Pleistocene and the recent and explosive radiation of this family