Xenorophus is a genus of primitive odontocete from late Oligocene (Chattian) marine deposits in South Carolina belonging to Xenorophidae.
Xenorophus was originally described on the basis of a skull from the Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina in the collections of the USNM.[1] Later authors, but also Remington Kellogg who described the genus, classified it in the family Agorophiidae, which eventually became a repository for primitive odontocetes. Whitmore and Sanders (1977) and Fordyce (1981), however, preferred to treat Xenorophus as Odontoceti incertae sedis.[2][3][4][5] A cladistic analysis by Mark Uhen published in 2008 recognized Xenorophus as belonging with Archaeodelphis and Albertodelphis in an odontocete clade more primitive than Agorophius or Simocetus, and named it Xenorophidae.[6]
Xenorophus was capable of echolocation like modern dolphins, judging from the cranial features of two other xenorophids, Echovenator and Cotylocara[7][8] and from the shape of its own skull.[9] It had an estimated body length of 2.6 to 3 metres (8 ft 6 in to 9 ft 10 in).[9]