Indohyus
Indohyus | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Graphic representation of Indohyus |
||||||||||||
Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
Middle Eocene | ||||||||||||
50 to 48 million years | ||||||||||||
Locations | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Indohyus | ||||||||||||
Ranga Rao , 1971 |
Indohyus is an extinct genus of Artiodactyla (Artiodactyla) mounted on the front of about 48 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent lived. Indohyus is considered to be the link between land mammals and whales . Indohyus was about the size of a raccoon and most closely resembles the African stag pig . The thickened ear bone is the most important feature thatspeaksfor the direct descent of whales from Indohyus , because this feature is only found in whales. A strong thickening of the outer bone layers, the so-called osteosclerosis , also indicates that the animals have already partially lived in the water. This characteristic can also be found in the hippos alive todayand it allows an energy-saving, wading method of locomotion under water.
species
- Indohyus indirae
- Indohyus major
Individual evidence
- ^ Johannes GM Thewissen et al .: Whales originated from aquatic artiodactyls in the Eocene epoch of India . In: Nature , 450, 2007, pp. 1190-1194, doi: 10.1038 / nature06343 .
- ↑ Whales are descended from swimming deer . Spiegel Online , December 20, 2007.
- ↑ Christina Taraschewski: How the ancestor of the whales looked , Wissenschaft.de, December 20, 2007.
- ↑ “On the trail of whale relatives” , DLF , December 20, 2007.
- ↑ Ancestor of the Whales - The Underwater Deer. sueddeutsche.de, May 17, 2010, accessed on December 27, 2012 .
- ↑ From game to whale. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 21, 2007, Knowledge section .
- ↑ Indohyus major . The Paleobiology Database, as of August 26, 2005.