Platanistidae

Platanistidae is a family of river dolphins containing the extant Ganges river dolphin and Indus river dolphin (both in the genus Platanista) but also extinct relatives from freshwater<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and marine deposits in the Neogene.<ref>L. G. Barnes. 2006. A phylogenetic analysis of the superfamily Platanistoidea (Mammalia, Cetacea, Odontoceti). Beitrage zur Palaontologie 30:25-42</ref>

The Amazon river dolphin, baiji, and La Plata dolphin were once thought to belong to Platanistidae (e.g. Simpson, 1945), but cladistic and DNA studies beginning in the 1990s showed that the former three taxa are more closely related to Delphinoidea than to the South Asian river dolphin.<ref>G. G. Simpson. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 85:1-350.</ref><ref>Hrbek T, da Silva VMF, Dutra N, Gravena W, Martin AR, Farias IP (2014) A New Species of River Dolphin from Brazil or: How Little Do We Know Our Biodiversity. PLoS ONE 9(1): e83623. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083623</ref> The extinct odontocete families Allodelphinidae and Squalodelphinidae are closely related to Platanistidae.<ref>Boersma, A.; Pyenson, N. D. (2016). "Arktocara yakataga, a new fossil odontocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Oligocene of Alaska and the antiquity of Platanistoidea". Peer J. 4: e2321. doi:10.7717/peerj.2321. PMC 4991871. Template:PMID.</ref> Fossils from this clade have been found in deposits in North and South America, Europe, and Central Asia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Fossil and modern members of Platanistidae, a family of dolphins, share distinctive features such as an elongated, narrow snout and a uniquely shaped bone near the cheek area. The family is divided into two subfamilies being the extinct Pomatodelphininae, known from Miocene marine deposits, and the extant Platanistinae, which includes the South Asian river dolphin Platanista gangetica.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

References

Template:Cetacea Template:Odontoceti Template:Taxonbar Template:Authority control G. Barnes, L. (2006). A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Superfamily Platanistoidea (Mammalia, Cetacea, Odontoceti).