Messapicetus longirostris Bianucci, Landini & Varola, 1992 (Cetacea, Ziphiidae) is known from a nearly complete skull collected in the lower Tortonian sediments of the Pietra leccese formation, at Cavallino near Lecce (Apulia, Italy). The peculiar morphology and significant lengthening of the rostrum suggests that there exists a particular trophic specialization related to the search for food at the sea bottom. Besides Messapicetus, only four fossil genera of Ziphiidae with well preserved skull remains are known. This family is uncommon in the Miocene Mediterranean Basin, even if some isolated periotics, previously referred to other families, belong, in our opinion, to the Ziphiidae.