Raoellid mammals are small artiodactyls from the Eocene of Asia, hypothesized to be closely related to stem Cetacea. Knowledge of the cranial and dental morphology of Raoellidae comes mostly from one species, Indohyus indirae. Here we describe new material of another raoellid genus, Khirtharia, based on material retrieved from the Kalakot area, Jammu and Kashmir. This new material, comprising an almost complete, lightly deformed cranium and a partial snout with associated partial mandible, greatly adds to our knowledge of raoellid morphology. It highlights the similarity of cranial characters with Indohyus, such as a long snout with raptorial incisors, a thick and narrow supraorbital region, a strong postorbital constriction, a triangular shaped braincase, and a thickened medial wall to the auditory bulla (involucrum). The new specimen is similar to Indohyus cranially but differs dentally in being more bunodont. The presence of these traits in two different raoellid genera suggests they may be present more broadly across Raoellidae. These characters are also observed in early cetaceans, highlighting the need to investigate their phylogenetic impact. Some cranial features support aquatic habits of members of this family.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024 OA
Nyungwe National Park (NP) is a mountainous region situated in the southwestern part of Rwanda on Congo-Nile watershed. In spite of the high biodiversity in pri- mates, birds and plants, no fish were reported to occur in the park, probably because of the cold temperatures of the rivers. An expedition in 2022 examined the fish diver- sity within the Nyungwe NP and its buffer zones. Additional sampling was performed in the main river draining the park into Lake Kivu: the Kamiranzovu. Three hundred and twenty specimens belonging to 13 species were collected. Specimens were col- lected only in the western part of the park, draining towards the Congo basin. The diversity within the park proper was limited to two putative species within the com- plex of Amphilius cf. kivuensis, which were caught on either side of the Kivu–Rusizi watershed. In contrast, a higher fish diversity, including one clariid species and two species of Enteromius, was observed in the rivers at a lower altitude of the buffer zone. However, the highest species diversity was found near the mouth of Kamiran- zovu River, including 11 species, of which 4 were non-native: the guppy Poecilia reti- culata, Astatotilapia burtoni, the blue-spotted tilapia Oreochromis leucosticus and the Egyptian mouth-brooder Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
