Indohyus

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Genus of extinct artiodactyl mammals from Eocene Epoch

title: "Indohyus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["whippomorphs", "eocene-artiodactyla", "eocene-mammals-of-asia", "transitional-fossils", "fossil-taxa-described-in-1971"] description: "Genus of extinct artiodactyl mammals from Eocene Epoch" topic_path: "general/whippomorphs" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indohyus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of extinct artiodactyl mammals from Eocene Epoch ::

| fossil_range = Ypresian, | image = Indohyus cranium.jpg | image_upright = | image_caption = Skull of Indohyus indirae | taxon = Indohyus | authority = Rao, 1971 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = * I. indirae

  • I. major?

Indohyus (Meaning "India's pig" from the Greek words Indos, "from India" and hûs, "pig") is an extinct genus of raoellid artiodactyl known from Eocene fossils in Asia. This small chevrotain-like animal found in the Himalayas is among the closest known relatives of cetaceans.

Discovery

The fossils were discovered among rocks that had been collected in 1971 in Kashmir by the Indian geologist A. Ranga Rao who found a few teeth and parts of a jawbone; when he died, however, many rocks had yet to be broken open. Ranga Rao's widow gave the rocks to Hans Thewissen, who was working on them. When his technician accidentally broke one of the skulls they had found, Thewissen recognised the ear structure of the auditory bulla, formed from the ectotympanic bone in a shape which is highly distinctive, found only in the skulls of cetaceans both living and extinct, including Pakicetus.

Classification

Raoellids may be the "missing link" sister group to whales (Cetacea). Oxygen-18 values and osteosclerotic bones indicate that the raccoon-like or chevrotain-like Indohyus was habitually aquatic, but 13C values suggest that it rarely fed in the water. The authors suggest this documents an intermediate step in the transition back to water completed by the whales, and suggests a new understanding of the evolution of cetaceans.

Paleobiology

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Indohyus_BW.jpg" caption="''Khirtharia major'']])."] ::

About the size of a fox, this omnivorous pig-like creature shared some of the traits of whales, and showed signs of adaptations to aquatic life. Their bones were similar to the bones of modern creatures such as the hippopotamus, and helped reduce buoyancy so that they could stay underwater. This suggests a survival strategy similar to that of the African mousedeer or water chevrotain which, when threatened by a bird of prey, dives into water and hides beneath the surface for up to four minutes.

Indohyus was possibly sexually dimorphic, as significant intraspecific variation in the size of its maxillary canine teeth has been interpreted as evidence of such.

References

References

  1. (November 2009). "The origin and early evolution of whales: macroevolution documented on the Indian subcontinent". J Biosci.
  2. Ranga, A. Rao. (1971). "New mammals from Murree (Kalakot Zone) of the Himalayan foot hills near Kalakot, Jammu and Kashmir state, India". Journal of the Geological Society of India.
  3. Sample, Ian. (19 December 2007). "How Bambi evolved into Moby-Dick". [[The Guardian]].
  4. (2007). "Whales originated from aquatic artiodactyls in the Eocene epoch of India". Nature.
  5. Holmes, Bob. "A life spent chasing down how whales evolved".
  6. (2016). "Cetacean Paleobiology (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology)". Wiley-Blackwell.
  7. (2024-04-07). "Cranial anatomy of Indohyus indirae (Raoellidae), an artiodactyl from the Eocene of India, and its implications for raoellid biology". Palaeontologia Electronica.
  8. Zimmer, Carl. (December 19, 2007). "Whales: From So Humble A Beginning...". The Loom, [[ScienceBlogs]].
  9. Zimmer, Carl. (2007-12-19). "Whales: From So Humble A Beginning...".
  10. Bouaziz, Hugo. (15 January 2025). "Morphological study of the anterior dentition in Raoellidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla), new insight on their dietary habits". [[Journal of Anatomy]].

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whippomorphseocene-artiodactylaeocene-mammals-of-asiatransitional-fossilsfossil-taxa-described-in-1971