Platanistidae

Platanistidae is a family of river dolphins containing the extant Ganges river dolphin and Indus river dolphin but also extinct relatives from freshwater and marine deposits in the Neogene.

Platanistidae

Fábio Olmos · CC BY 4.0 · 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
StegocetiPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 97 occurrencesMiocene — about 90 of 97 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 97 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 97 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 7 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 7 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 14 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 6 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 4 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences16.3 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

97 occurrences of Platanistidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

97 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

27 formations

Calvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 38.50°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 37.66°N, 77.11°WCalvert — 38.54°N, 76.70°WCalvert — 38.60°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WCalvert — 38.38°N, 76.99°WCalvert — 38.44°N, 76.44°WPeace River — 27.75°N, 81.98°WPeace River — 27.89°N, 81.97°WPeace River — 27.83°N, 81.84°WPeace River — 27.84°N, 81.86°WLaa — 48.37°N, 16.35°EChoptank — 38.47°N, 76.48°WChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WHolíč — 48.22°N, 16.33°ESt Marys — 38.33°N, 76.43°WSt Marys — 38.36°N, 76.39°WVillavieja — 3.29°N, 75.20°WPebas — 3.01°S, 73.40°WMarks Head — 29.90°N, 82.10°WPietra Leccese — 40.14°N, 18.07°ENye — 44.57°N, 124.07°WKirkwood — 39.30°N, 75.20°WBerchem — 51.17°N, 4.46°ESan Diego — 32.74°N, 117.17°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WCitronelle — 30.79°N, 88.10°WLeitha — 48.01°N, 16.78°EStudienka — 48.44°N, 17.16°EKozard — 47.91°N, 19.62°EDuho — 36.05°N, 129.36°ESolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WStatenville — 30.40°N, 83.00°WCantaure — 11.93°N, 70.01°WAstoria — 44.64°N, 124.06°W

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The named rock units Platanistidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Platanistidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Platanistidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,046 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 78 sites for Platanistidae, 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

54 references

Each of the 97 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. 42 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Platanistidae

Credit
Fábio Olmos
Licence
CC BY 4.0
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 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 itStegoceti through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1846)