Skeletons of terrestrial cetaceans and the relationship of whales to artiodactyls

The published Pakicetus reconstruction combines skull H-GSP 96231 with separately catalogued vertebral and limb elements from one locality and supports terrestrial locomotion; it is not a single associated skeleton or a direct ancestor.

Pakicetus is anchored here only by the H-GSP Locality 62 sample from Ganda Kas, including separately catalogued cranial and postcranial material within an approximately 50–48 Ma locality envelope; this is not a global genus range or first appearance.

Thewissen et al. report Pakicetus attocki as a wolf-sized early Eocene pakicetid cetacean and use its skeletons in a morphology-based analysis; the sampled placement is a matrix result, not a demonstrated direct ancestor.

The profiled Pakicetus material is bounded to H-GSP Locality 62 at Ganda Kas in the Kala Chitta Hills, Punjab, Pakistan, within the early Eocene Kuldana Formation; this single-site sample does not establish a complete geographic distribution.

The described Pakicetus locomotor skeleton is interpreted as terrestrial and running-adapted, while the paper cautions that auditory specializations do not by themselves imply aquatic life; diet, behaviour and performance are not directly observed.

Skull H-GSP 96231 and separately catalogued postcranial elements including humerus H-GSP 92042 and calcaneum H-GSP 96420 document the Pakicetus reconstruction; the skull retains a cetacean-like ear region and the postcrania show weight-bearing and running features.