Kutchicetus

Kutchicetus is an extinct genus of early whale of the family Remingtonocetidae that lived during Early-Middle Eocene in what is now the coastal border of Pakistan and India. It is closely related to Andrewsiphius with which it was synonymized by Gingerich et al. 2001. Thewissen & Bajpai 2009 proposed a new clade, Andrewsiphiinae, for the two species. Later authors, however, still accept both as separate genera.

Kutchicetus

Nobu Tamura · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AndrewsiphiinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cetacea
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cetacea

Time the record covers

At most 3.4 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 41.03 Mya and 37.71 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 5 of 5 occurrencesEocene41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41.53 Mya37.21 Mya

5 occurrences of Kutchicetus on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

5 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Harudi — 23.65°N, 68.66°EHarudi — 23.51°N, 68.78°EHarudi — 23.83°N, 68.77°EPanandhro — 23.68°N, 68.74°EBandah — 27.15°N, 70.47°E

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The named rock units Kutchicetus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Kutchicetus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Kutchicetus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

33 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Kutchicetus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 5 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Kutchicetus

Credit
Nobu Tamura
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAndrewsiphiinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bajpai and Thewissen 2000