Welcome Rohri City! (Bhulan) Indus River Blind Dolphine 2

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Until the 1970s the Indus and Ganges River Dolphins were regarded as a single species, first named by Roxburgh in 1801. However at that time it became clear that two populations, one centered on the Ganges River in India and the other in the Indus River in Pakistan had not interbred for many hundreds of years. Based on differences in skull structure, scientists declared the two populations as separate species. However Rice, in his taxonomic classification of cetaceans that has become standard in the field, [1], found that there were insufficient morphological differences to warrant distinction at the species level. Thus just one species is recognised in the genus Platanista and four true river dolphin species, each in its own family as well as genus.

Taxonomy

The Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista Gangetica Gangetica) and Indus River Dolphin (Platanista Gangetica minor) are two sub-species of freshwater or river dolphins found in the Indian sub-continent. From the 1970s they had commonly been regarded as separate species. However in 1998, a seminal work on cetacean taxonomy listed them as a single species once again (see taxonomy below). The single species is likely to have either the Ganges and Indus River Dolphin or Indian River Dolphin as its common name, although neither has yet spread into wide usage and the latter does not reflect that the Indus subspecies is resident primarily in Pakistan.

INDUS REVER BLIND DOPHINE