[4] Scaldicetus is known from the Miocene to Pleistocene deposits of Western Europe, the U.S. (California, Florida, Maryland, Virginia), Baja Peninsula, Peru, New South Wales, and Japan.

[5] The name Scaldicetus caretti was coined in 1867 from numerous sperm whale teeth collected in Neogene deposits near Antwerp, Belgium[6] probably from the early-to-middle Miocene Bercham Formation.

[8] Scaldicetus is sometimes classified into the dubious subfamily Hoplocetinae along with Diaphorocetus, Idiorophus, and Hoplocetus based on the presence of large, robust, enamel-coated teeth.

[5] "Ontocetus" oxymycterus, described from the middle Miocene (Langhian) of Santa Barbara, California, was assigned to Scaldicetus in 2008,[9] but was subsequently made the type of a new genus, Albicetus.

Like in the killer whale, Scaldicetus may have mashed its food in smaller pieces to ease swallowing, which would have increased the risk of hitting bone which would cause such fractures.

[5] The Deist Formation, judging from the mollusk assemblage, probably represented a shallow sea with volatile ocean currents, moving sand bars, and megaripples.