Meet Khirtharia, close to Indohyus in Eocene NW India and in all studies

Never heard of this taxon until last night.
In all studies Khirtharia nests close to Indohyus . They are similar in size, shape, age, location and have a similar dentition.

The issue is
are these two taxa artiodactyls? Or close to tenrecs?

In all studies that omit tenrecs and sengis from their matrices
Khirtharthia and Indohyus are basal artiodactyls. However in the one study that does not omit tenrecs and sengis, the large reptile tree (LRT, 2340 taxa) Khirtharthia and Indohyus nest between tenrecs and sengis, which also, by convergence, have that famous ‘double pulley’ ankle joint.

In published studies both taxa are basal to whales.
In the LRT both taxa are basal to odontocetes only. Not basal to mysticetes.

Indohyus major
(Rao 1971, Thewissen et al. 2007; Eocene, 48 mya; 1m in length) was considered an artiodactyl, but nests in the LRT with Khirtharia and more distantly, Leptictidium between tenrecs and odontocetes. So the case for Leptictidium as a whale ancestor is strengthened with the addition of its sister Indohyus. The case for a traditional artiodactyl ancestor for whales is invalidated by the addition of these taxa.

Khirtharia dayi, Khirtharia inflata
(Pilgrim 1940, Waqas et al 2024; Orliac et al 2024; Middle Eocene, NW India) was originally and traditionally considered a basal artiodactyl close to Indohyus. These studies omitted sengis and tenrecs. The LRT nested these taxa with sengis and tenrecs.

Raoellidae
Indohyus and Khirtharia are considered, “Raoellids – small, semiaquatic ungulates closely related to cetaceans.” In the LRT neither nests close to any traditional ungulate. ‘Cetacea’ is not a monophyletic clade, so is invalid after analysis.

“The genus Raoella was synonymized with Indohyus by Kumar and Sahni (1985), which was reaffirmed by Thewissen, Gingerich, and Russel (1987).”

“Raoellids were generally diminutive creatures that were primarily herbivorous. They were thought to be basal artiodactyls with moderately long snouts that were distinguished from other mammals primarily by bunolophodont molars and other dental features. It was also noted that the raoellids appeared similar to the perissodactyls of the same region. The teeth contain a large basin and are specialized for shearing.”

Sengis are primarily insectivores, but also eat plants.
Tenrecs are primarily insectivores.

“Khirtharia major, at about twice the size of an average-sized raoellid, would have been approximately the size of a coyote.”

Click on the links above to see the data.

References
Orliac M et al 2024. Digital restoration of the snout of Khirtharia inflata (Raoellidae, Artiodactyla) from the middle Eocene of northwest Himalaya. MorphoMuseum 10(2):e224.
Pilgrim GE 1940. Middle Eocene Mammals from North-west India. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. B110 (1–2): 127–152.
Rao AR 1971. New mammals from Murree (Kalakot Zone) of the Himalayan foot hills near Kalakot, Jammu and Kashmir state, India. Journal of the Geological Society of India. 12 (2): 124–34.
Thewissen JGM, Cooper LN, Clementz MT, Bajpai S and Tiwari BN 2007. Whales originated from aquatic artiodactyls in the Eocene epoch of India. Nature 450:1190-1195.
Tobien H 1962. Insectivoren (Mammalia) aus dem Mitteleozän (Lutetium) von Messel bei Darmstadt. Wiesbaden: Notizbl. hess. Landesamt. Bodenforsch .
Waqas M, Smith T Rana, Rajendr S and Orliac M 2024. The cranium and dentition of Khirtharia (Artiodactyla, Raoellidae): new data on a stem taxon to Cetacea. Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 31 (2): 24.

wiki/Leptictidium
wiki/Indohyus
wiki/Khirtharia
wiki/Raoellidae