page_title: Rodhocetus
section_title: R. kasrani
hierarchical_section_title: Rodhocetus / Description / R. kasrani
caption_attribution_description: Rodhocetus looked more like today's whales than Pakicetus did: www.flickr.com/photos/ellenm1/4261303302/?editreplace=1 Notice: ? nose partway up the snout ? simple teeth used to catch and swallow fish These whales were partially adapted to life in the water, with short legs they might have used to waddle about on land&#160;? like sea lions do today. --Scientist Philip Gingerich
context_page_description: Rodhocetus is an extinct genus of protocetid early whale known from the Lutetian of Pakistan. The best-known protocetid, Rodhocetus is known from two partial skeletons that taken together give a complete image of an Eocene whale that had short limbs with long hands and feet that were probably webbed and a sacrum that was immobile with four partially fused sacral vertebrae. It is one of several extinct whale genera that possess land mammal characteristics, thus demonstrating the evolutionary transition from land to sea.
context_section_description: The holotype of R. kasrani, GSP-UM 3012 found in 1992, was described by Gingerich et al. 1994: a cranium with two dentaries, most of the vertebral column as far as the anterior tail (C2–C7; T1–13; L1–6, S1–4, Ca1–4), most ribs, parts of the sternum, both hip bones, and a left femur. Gingerich et al. 1994 referred a specimen collected in 1981, GSP-UM 1852 two dentaries with teeth, to R. kasrani.
  Derived traits in R. kasrani, relative to older archaeocetes such as Pakicetus, includes high-crowned cheek teeth, larger auditory bullae, larger mandibular foramen, and mandibular canals. The higher neural spines and shorter femur (60–70%) distinguishes Rodhocetus from the more primitive Ambulocetus. The convex posterior surface of the exoccipital, shorter cervical vertebrae, and unfused sacral vertebrae distinguishes R. kasrani from Indocetus. In contrast to later archaeocetes such as Protocetus and later cetaceans, Rodhocetus retains external nares above upper canines, high neural spines on anterior thoracic vertebrae, and four sacral vertebrae with sacroiliac joints similar to those in land-mammals (suggesting a hip joint that could support the body weight.)
  Several cranial features identifies R. kasrani as an archaeocete: both the premaxillae and the dentaries are elongated, the frontal shield is wide, and the nuchal crest is high. The auditory bullae are large and dense but, there are no associated pterygoid fossae or air sinuses. The mandibular foramina are large with a pan bone 90 mm (3.5 in) long and 65 mm (2.6 in) high.
  The specific name kasrani comes from Qaisrani, the Baloch tribe inhabiting the type locality.  The protocetid Qaisracetus is also named after them.
caption: Skull at the University of Michigan
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