New baleen whale genera (Cetacea, Mammalia) from the miocene of the northern Caucasus and Ciscaucasia: 2. Vampalus gen. nov. from the Middle-Late Miocene of Chechnya and Krasnodar Region

Based on an almost complete skeleton (skull, scapula fragment, humeri, ulna, radius, 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, and 20 lumbar and caudal vertebrae) from the Aksai River valley near the village of Sayasan (Nozhai-Yurtovskii District of the Chechen Republic), a new Middle-Late Miocene representative of the cetotheriid subfamily Herpetocetinae, Vampalus sayasanicus gen. et sp. nov., is described. This is the first record of fossil whales in Chechnya. The genus Vampalus is also considered to include Cetotherium helmerseni Brandt, 1871 from the Miocene of the Krasnodar Region.