Indochius ( lat. Indohyus , from other Greek. Ἰνδο- + ὗς , "Indian pig") is a genus of extinct artiodactyls ( Artiodactyla ) from the family Raoellidae , which lived about 48 million years ago on the Indian subcontinent . A full skeleton of Indochius was found in 2007 in Kashmir , after research it was suggested that the Roellids are a link between terrestrial mammals and whales [1] [2] [3] . The size of Indochius corresponded to the size of a raccoon , and outwardly it resembled the deer raccoons living in Africa . A thickened umbrella bone ( involucrum ), related to the middle ear region, is the main feature that speaks of the direct origin of whales from Indochius, since this sign is found only in whales. The structure of the teeth is also similar.
† Indochius | ||||||||||||||||
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It used to be that the ancestors of whales were hippos , but geographic inconsistency and their too late appearance during evolution spoke against this theory. The first whales lived off the coast of modern Pakistan , and the first hippos in Africa. Indochius, which was discovered in India , is more suitable for the location of the habitat.
It is assumed that Indochius hid in the aquatic environment from predators and was a herbivore , as evidenced by the structure and chemical composition of the teeth. Fish and meat began to enter cetacean food much later.
Back in 1992, the previous step of the transition from land to marine mammals was found. Ambulocetus natans was discovered in northern Pakistan and had even more powerful legs. He lived about 49 million years ago.
Not all paleontologists in 2007 considered the Indochius to be the “missing link” [4] .
See also
- Cetacean evolution
- Pakitseta
Sources
- ↑ Thewissen, JGM; Cooper, LN; Clementz, MT; Bajpai, S; Tiwari, BN (2007). Whales originated from aquatic artiodactyls in the Eocene epoch of India. Nature 450 (7173): 1190-1194. - article in Bibcode , doi , PMID
- ↑ Minkel, JR (2007-12-19). Closest Whale Cousin — A Fox-Size Deer? Researchers split on closest evolutionary kin to whales and dolphins . Scientific American.
- ↑ Newspaper. Ru Hooves fell off the whales in fear ( with the image of Indochius )
- ↑ Stokstad, Erik (2007-12-19). Long-Lost Relative of Whales Found? . ScienceNOW Daily News. http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1219/2 .