Pakicetus inachus

Pakicetus is an extinct genus of semi-aquatic cetacean of the family Pakicetidae, which was endemic to South Asia during the Ypresian period, about 50 million years ago. It was a wolf-like mammal, about 1–2 m long, and lived in and around water where it ate fish and other animals. The name Pakicetus comes from the fact that the first fossils of this extinct amphibious whale were discovered in Pakistan. The vast majority of paleontologists regard it as the most basal whale, representing a transitional stage between land mammals and whales. It belongs to the even-toed ungulates with the closest living non-cetacean relative being the hippopotamus.

Pakicetus inachus

Kevin Guertin from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
PakicetusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pakicetidae
Life habit
amphibious, depth=surfacePBDB, for Pakicetidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pakicetidae
Environment
freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Pakicetidae

Time the record covers

At most 7.1 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 48.07 Mya and 41.03 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEocene48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.6 Mya40.5 Mya

2 occurrences of Pakicetus inachus 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

2 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

1 formation

Kuldana — 33.62°N, 71.92°EKuldana — 33.63°N, 72.19°E

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

Pakicetus inachus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pakicetus inachus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

56 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Pakicetus inachus, 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

2 references

Each of the 2 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Pakicetus inachus

Credit
Kevin Guertin from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pakicetus inachus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itPakicetus through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gingerich and Russell 1981