Indohyus, the whale that was a deer
A small hoofed animal in Kashmir has the ear bone of a whale — and the habit of hiding underwater.
- When
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Eocene, Cenozoic
Indohyus is a raccoon-sized artiodactyl with dense, heavy limb bones of the kind found in animals that wade or stand in water, and a thickened ear structure called the involucrum that is otherwise unique to cetaceans. Its tooth chemistry indicates it spent much of its time in water. It probably ate on land and submerged to escape predators, like the modern African mousedeer. It is the closest known relative of whales that is not itself a whale, and it settled which land group whales came from.