Platanistidae is a family of river dolphins containing the extant Ganges river dolphin and Indus river dolphin (both in the genus '' Platanista'') but also extinct relatives from marine deposits in the Neogene. The Amazon river dolphin, Yangtze river dolphin, and franciscana were once thought to belong to Platanistidae (e.g. Simpson, 1945), but cladistic and DNA studies beginning in the 1990s showed that the former three taxa are more closely related to Delphinoidea than to the South Asian river dolphin. The extinct odontocete families

Allodelphinidae Allodelphinidae is a family of primitive platanistoid river dolphins found in marine deposits in the eastern North Pacific region, Alaska, and Japan. Description Kimura and Barnes (2016, pp. 3–4) diagnose the family as follows: System ...

and

Squalodelphinidae Squalodelphinidae is a family of primitive platanistoid river dolphins found in marine deposits in the eastern Pacific, western Atlantic, and Europe. Description Distinguishing features of Squalodelphinidae include a moderately elongated and ta ...

are closely related to Platanistidae. Fossils from this clade have been found in deposits in North and South America, Europe, and Central Asia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6078080 Mammal families Dolphins Taxa named by John Edward Gray