species of freshwater or river dolphin From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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Ganges river dolphin leaping out of the water | |
Size compared to an average human | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Infraorder: | Cetacea |
Family: | Platanistidae |
Genus: | Platanista Wagler, 1830 |
Species: | P. gangetica |
Binomial name | |
Platanista gangetica (Lebeck, 1801); (Roxburgh, 1801) | |
Subspecies | |
Platanista gangetica gangetica | |
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.
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