Protosiren and Babiacetus (Mammalia, Sirenia and Cetacea) from the Middle Eocene Drazinda Formation, Sulaiman Range, Punjab (Pakistan)
Year: 1995
Type: article
Abstract: Protosiren sattaensis is a new late Lutetian protosirenid based on a partial skeleton found in the Drazinda Formation of the Sulaiman Range, Punjab Province, Pakistan.The new species is similar to Protosirenfiaasi and P. smithae from the middle Eocene of Egypt in having thoracic vertebrae with large, keyhole-shaped neural canals that lack ossified epiphyses and synovial rib articulations.Ribs are densely ossified, but lack the pachyostotic expansion and osteosclerotic isotropy seen in contemporary dugongids.P. sattaensis differs from other species of Protosiren in having a large pelvis with a large obturator foramen.P. sattaensis is important in confirming that the geographic range of Protosiren extended into eastern Tethys, and it is important as a temporal and morphological intermediate linking the two previously known species.Babiacetus indicus recently described from Kutch in India is now known from a skull and lower jaws from the Drazinda Formation in Pakistan.It is distinctive as the largest protocetid archaeocete known to date from Indo-Pakistan, and it is also distinctive among protocetids in having a fused mandibular symphysis joining left and right dentaries and in having doublerooted upper and lower first premolars.Similar microfaunas suggest correlation of the Harudi Formation of India and the Drazinda Formation of Pakistan, and the presence of Sirenia and Bnbiacetus indicus in both supports this correlation.
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W17547018