PBDB Taxon

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Platanista gangetica

Mammalia - Cetacea - Platanistidae

Taxonomy

Delphinus gangeticus was named by Leebeck (1801). It is extant. Its type locality is Hooghly River, which is in a Holocene fluvial horizon in India.

It was corrected as Delphinus gangetica by Roxberg (1803); it was recombined as Susu gangetica by Hershkovitz (1966); it was recombined as Platanista gangetica by Cuvier (1836), Gray (1846), Gray (1850), Eschricht (1851), Gray (1866), Gray (1868), Van Beneden and Gervais (1880), Trouessart (1898), Trouessart (1904), Turner (1912), Scheffer and Rice (1963), Pilleri (1989), Rice (1998), Mead and Brownell (2005), Barnes (2006), Agnarsson and May-Collado (2008), Boersma and Pyenson (2016), Jefferson (2021) and Braulik et al. (2021).

Synonyms

Susu platanista was named by Lesson (1828). It is extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Susu gangetica by Hershkovitz (1966); it was considered a nomen nudum by Braulik et al. (2021); it was synonymized subjectively with Platanista gangetica by Jefferson (2021).
Delphinorhynchus gangeticus was named by Lesson (1827). It is extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Susu gangetica by Hershkovitz (1966).
Delphinus shawensis was named by Blainville (1817). It is extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Platanista gangetica by Trouessart (1898); it was synonymized subjectively with Susu gangetica by Hershkovitz (1966); it was synonymized objectively with Inia geoffrensis by Jefferson (2021).
Platanista indi was named by Blyth (1859). It is extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Susu gangetica by Hershkovitz (1966); it was synonymized subjectively with Platanista minor by Mead and Brownell (2005) and Braulik et al. (2021); it was synonymized subjectively with Platanista gangetica by Trouessart (1898) and Jefferson (2021).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1801	Delphinus gangeticus Leebeck
1803	Delphinus gangetica Roxberg
1817	Delphinus shawensis Blainville p. 153
1827	Delphinorhynchus gangeticus Lesson p. 406
1828	Susu platanista Lesson p. 440
1836	Platanista gangetica Cuvier p. 252
1846	Platanista gangetica Gray p. 45
1850	Platanista gangetica Gray p. 137
1851	Platanista gangetica Eschricht
1859	Platanista indi Blyth p. 493
1866	Platanista gangetica Gray p. 223
1866	Platanista indi Gray p. 224
1868	Platanista gangetica Gray p. 4
1868	Platanista indi Gray p. 4
1880	Platanista gangetica Van Beneden and Gervais p. 456
1880	Platanista indi Van Beneden and Gervais p. 467
1898	Platanista gangetica Trouessart p. 1017
1904	Platanista gangetica Trouessart p. 761
1912	Platanista gangetica Turner p. 94
1963	Platanista gangetica Scheffer and Rice p. 5
1966	Susu gangetica Hershkovitz p. 13
1989	Platanista gangetica Pilleri p. 121
1989	Platanista indi Pilleri p. 121
1998	Platanista gangetica Rice p. 92
2005	Platanista gangetica Mead and Brownell p. 738
2006	Platanista gangetica Barnes p. 32
2008	Platanista gangetica Agnarsson and May-Collado p. 981 figs. Fig. 5
2016	Platanista gangetica Boersma and Pyenson p. 12 figs. Figure 10
2021	Platanista gangetica Braulik et al. p. 29
2021	Platanista gangetica Jefferson p. 58

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
—	Osteichthyes	()
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
subclass	Synapsida
—	Therapsida	()
infraorder	Cynodontia	()
—	Mammaliamorpha
—	Mammaliaformes
class	Mammalia
—	Theriamorpha	(Rowe 1993)

Rank	Name	Author
—	Theriiformes	()
—	Trechnotheria
—	Cladotheria
—	Zatheria
subclass	Tribosphenida	()
subclass	Theria
—	Eutheria	()
—	Placentalia
—	Boreoeutheria
—	Laurasiatheria
—	Scrotifera
—	Euungulata
—	Artiodactylamorpha
—	Artiodactyla	()
—	Whippomorpha
order	Cetacea
—	Pelagiceti
—	Neoceti
suborder	Odontoceti
—	Amblyoccipita
—	Stegoceti
family	Platanistidae	()
genus	Platanista	Wagler 1830
species	gangetica	(Leebeck 1801)

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

Platanista gangetica Leebeck 1801

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Invalid names: Delphinorhynchus gangeticus Lesson 1827 [synonym], Delphinus shawensis Blainville 1817 [synonym], Platanista indi Blyth 1859 [synonym], Susu platanista Lesson 1828 [synonym]

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
G. T. Braulik et al. 2021	The skulls can be differentiated from those of P. minor by the presence of a projection at the frontal suture above the nasals and behind the maxillary crests (Figure 4). While there is some overlap in tooth counts between Indus and Ganges river dolphins, all skulls with less than 30 teeth in the upper tooth rows are Ganges river dolphins. The Gan- ges river dolphin has three unique mtDNA haplotypes (HAP4-6, see Braulik, Barnett, et al., 2015, GenBank accession numbers KJ629311-13) with five fixed differences separating it from the Indus river dolphin.