South Asian river dolphin
species of freshwater or river dolphin
(Redirected from Ganges river dolphin)
The South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a freshwater or river dolphin found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
| South Asian river dolphin Temporal range: Quaternary – recent[1]
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|---|---|
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| Ganges river dolphin leaping out of the water | |
| |
| Size compared to an average human | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Family: | Platanistidae |
| Genus: | Platanista Wagler, 1830 |
| Species: | P. gangetica
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| Binomial name | |
| Platanista gangetica (Lebeck, 1801); (Roxburgh, 1801)
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| Subspecies | |
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Platanista gangetica gangetica | |
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| Ranges of the Ganges river dolphin and of the Indus river dolphin | |
It is split into two subspecies, the Ganges river dolphin (P. g. gangetica) and Indus river dolphin (P. g. minor).
From the 1970s until 1998, they were regarded as separate species; however, in 1998, their classification was changed from two separate species to subspecies of a single species. The idea was to wait until genetic analysis had decided how best to classify them.
References
change- ↑ "Platanista Wagler 1830 (toothed whale)". Fossilworks. Archived from the original on 2018-12-18. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ↑ Smith, B.D. & Braulik, G.T. (2017). "Platanista gangetica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T41758A50383612.
