Protocetid cetaceans (Mammalia) from the Eocene of India

Protocetid cetaceans (Mammalia) from the Eocene of India

Bajpai S; Thewissen J G M

Palaeontologia Electronica

2014

2014

Protocetid cetaceans were first described from the Eocene of India in 1975, but many more specimens have been discovered since then and are described here. All specimens are from District Kutch in the State of Gujarat and were recovered in deposits approximately 42 million years old. Valid species described in the past include Indocetus ramani, Babiacetus indicus and B. mishrai. We here describe new material for Indocetus, including lower teeth and deciduous premolars. We also describe two new genera and species: Kharodacetus sahnii and Dhedacetus hyaeni. Kharodacetus is mostly based on a very well preserved rostrum and mandibles with teeth, and Dhedacetus is based on a partial skull with vertebral column. The Kutch protocetid fauna differs from the protocetid fauna of the Pakistani Sulaiman Range, possibly because the latter is partly older, and/or because it samples a different environment, being located on the trailing edge of the Indian Plate, directly exposed to the Indian Ocean.

Cetacea; India; hearing; Paleontology; morphology; origin; pakistan; Eocene; locomotor evolution; Mammalia; middle eocene; earliest cetaceans; ambulocetidae; early whales; kutch; New genus; New species

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Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication

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