Bharatisiren

Summary

Bharatisiren is an extinct genus of mammal which existed in what is now India during the early Miocene (Aquitanian) period.

Bharatisiren
Temporal range: early Miocene
Bharatisiren kachchhensis and Kutchisiren cylindrica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Sirenia
Family: Dugongidae
Subfamily: Dugonginae
Genus: Bharatisiren
Bajpai and Domning, 1997
Species
  • B. kachchhensis (Bajpai et al., 1987) (type)

Taxonomy edit

The type species of Bharatisiren, B. kachchhebsis, was originally named as a species of Metaxytherium, M. kachchhebsis, by Bajpai et al. (1987) from the Aquitanian-age Khari Nadi Formation of western India.[1] Bajpai and Domning (1997) however, judged M. kachchhensis generically distinct enough from the Metaxytherium type species to warrant its own genus, Bharatisiren.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ S. Bajpai, M. P. Singh, and P. Singh. 1987. A new sirenian from the Miocene of Kachchh, western India. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 32:20-25
  2. ^ S. Bajpai and D. P. Domning. 1997. A new dugongine sirenian from the early Miocene of India. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17(1):219-228.