Gandakasia

Gandakasia Temporal range: Early Eocene, 49 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetacea
Suborder:	†Archaeoceti
Family:	†Ambulocetidae
Genus:	†Gandakasia Dehm & Oettingen-Spielberg 1958
Binomial name
†Gandakasia potens (type)[1] Dehm & Oettingen-Spielberg 1958

Gandakasia is an extinct genus of ambulocetid from Pakistan, that lived in the Eocene epoch. It probably caught its prey near rivers or streams.

Just like Himalayacetus, Gandakasia is only known from a single jaw fragment, making comparisons to other ambulocetids difficult.^[2]

The first ambulocetid to be described, Gandakasia was not initially recognized as a cetacean, but, like other ambulocetids, they were amphibious mammals able to move both on land and in water.^[3]

Notes

1. Gandakasia potens in the Paleobiology Database
2. Thewissen, JGM. "Ambulocetidae: The First Coastal Whales". Retrieved February 2013.
3. Thewissen & Williams 2002, p. 79

References

• Dehm, Richard; Oettingen-Spielberg, Therese zu (1958). Paläontologische und geologische Untersuchungen im Tertiär von Pakistan. 2. Die mitteleocänen Säugetiere von Ganda Kas bei Basal in Nordwest-Pakistan. Abhandlungen / Neue Folge, 91. Munich: Beck. OCLC 163296508.
• Thewissen, J.G.M.; Williams, E.M. (2002). "The Early Radiations of Cetacea (Mammalia): Evolutionary Pattern and Developmental Correlations" (PDF). Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 33: 73–90. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.33.020602.095426. OCLC 4656321698. Retrieved February 2013.