Indocetus
Name: Indocetus
(India whale).
Phonetic: In-doe-see-tus.
Named By: A. Sahni & V. P. Mishra
- 1975.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Cetacea,
Archaeoceti, Protocetidae.
Species: I. ramani (type).
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Unknown due to lack of remains.
Known locations: India - Harudi Formation
Time period: Lutetian of the Eocene.
Fossil representation: Partial skull.
Indocetus
is a genus of protocetid whale
that was first name from the discovery
of a partial skull from the Harudi Formation of India in 1975.
In 1993 new whale fossils from the Domanda Formation of Pakistan
were added to the Indocetus genus, and this was a
significant
development since these were the first post cranial remains attributed
to the genus. However a subsequent study in 1995 came to the
conclusion that these post cranial remains actually belonged to the
genus Remingtoncetus. The result of this is that Indocetus
is still
only known from partial skull material from India, though further
isolated post cranial remains from the Harudi Formation have been
considered to potentially belong to that Indocetus.
As
a member of the Protocetidae, Indocetus would
have been related to
genera such as Babiacetus,
Eocetus and of course the type genus of
the group Protocetus.
The closest known relative of Indocetus
though
is the genus Rodhocetus,
with the teeth of
both of these genera
being single rooted.
Further reading
- Lower Tertiary vertebrates from western India - A. Sahni
& V. P. Mishra - 1975.
- Partial skeletons of Indocetus ramani
(Mammalia, Cetacea)
from the lower middle Eocene Domanda Shale in the Sulaiman Range of
Punjab (Pakistan) - Philip D. Gingerich, S. Mahmood Raza,
Muhammad Arif , Muhammad Anwar & Xiaoyuan Zhou -
1993.
- New Archaeocetes (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the middle Eocene
Domanda Formation of the Sulaiman Range, Punjab (Pakistan). -
Philip D. Gingerich, Muhammad Arif, William C. Clyde -
1995.
- Synopsis of the Earliest Cetaceans: Pakicetidae,
Ambulocetidae, Remingtonocetidae, and Protocetidae - Ellen
Williams - 1998.
- Middle Eocene Cetaceans from the Harudi and Subathu Formations of
India - S. Bajpai & J. G. M. Thewissen -
1998.
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