This family makes up two subspecies of South Asian river dolphins: Ganges river dolphin; Indus river dolphin; These dolphins fall under the Genus Platanista taxonomic category. International trade is prohibited by the listing of the South Asian river dolphin on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Smith, B. D., G. T. Braulik and A. The snout thickens towards its end. It feeds on small-sized fish prey, irrespective of species, and is limited only by the size of its narrow snout and the width of its gullet. According to Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography by Sanjeev Sanyal, a likely explanation is that several north Indian rivers like the Sutlej and Yamuna changed their path in ancient times and carried the dolphins with them. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). The name of the new species highlights its northern habitat: Arktocara is derived from the Latin for “the face of the north,” while yakataga is the indigenous Tlingit people’s name for the region where the fossil was found. We do not understand much about the social lives of Platanista either. Platanista gangetica minor, The South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a freshwater or river dolphin found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan which is split into two subspecies, the Ganges river dolphin (P. g. gangetica) and Indus river dolphin (P. g. “Knowing more about this fossil means that we know more about how that divergence happened.”. “Considering the only living dolphin in this group is restricted to freshwater systems in Southeast Asia, to find a relative that was all the way up in Alaska 25 million years ago was kind of mind-boggling,” Boersma said. How does a mother communicate with its calf? “Exactly how that once diverse and globally widespread group dwindled down to a single species in Southeast Asia is still somewhat a mystery, but every little piece that we can slot into the story helps.”. Past investigations on captive Platanista also suggest that it might be coprophagous, i.e. They are: the Ganges and Indus River dolphins, the Amazon River dolphin, or boto, and the Yangtze River dolphin, or Baiji, which is sadly believed to be extinct. The Indus River dolphin is found in the Indus River of Pakistan. One of the lines being versed from Valimiki’s Ramayan, highlighted the force by which the Ganges emerged from Lord Shivji’s locks and along with this force came many species such as animals, fish and the Shishumaar—the dolphin. [8] Two smaller subpopulations have also been recorded in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provinces. Just a few thousand dolphins remain as their habitat comes under … Chesapeake Testing provided X-ray scanning and support for digital-image processing. They are also found in the river system of Bangladesh and India. It is listed on Appendix II[18] as it has an unfavourable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organised by tailored agreements. [8], The Ganges subspecies (P. g. gangetica) can be found along the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems of Bangladesh and India, although its range formerly extended to Nepal. We need to listen to these clicks, which run like trains of cryptic Morse code, to understand its umwelt (experience of the environment). Among these is the presence of a caecum, an organ that is vestigial in many large mammals including humans. (Herald 1969) Vision: A flat cornea and lack of crystalline eye lens means that the Indus and Ganges river dolphins are effectively blind and therefore rely on echolocation to forage successfully. 1756 114th AVE SE Distribution: Ganges River dolphins are found throughout most of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Karnaphuli rivers of India and Bangladesh. The function of the caecum in this animal is probably for the digestion of chitin, a hard, proteinaceous material found in shrimp and prawn shells.

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