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"During the Eocene, the desert of the lower Indus plain which now lies in the Province of Sindh, was covered by Tethys, a warm sea which stretched as far as Central Europe and separated Angaraland in the north from Godwanaland in the south. The Indian peninsulas were flooded and even the Himalayan region lay completely under water. As the land rose, Tethys dried up. When the water withdrew, the sea-dwelling dolphins were forced to adapt themselves to the only remaining suitable habitat - the river And it is in such a river the Indus. that one finds that marvel of evolutionary adaptation, Platanista indi, the blind Indus Dolphin.
Cut off from the ocean by a natural catastrophe, the marine dolphins were forced to become entirely freshwater animals which now never venture as far as the tidal zone In the process of adapting to the changed conditions the darkness due to murky waters and fierce currents of the Indus some of their faculties have become atrophied and others amazingly highly developed. Loss of vision (Platanista is totally blind) has been compensated by an extremely efficient sonar system which enables the dolphins: to locate and identify even minute objects. The flipper has evolved as an organ of touch. Safety in running water is ensured by ceaseless activity interrupted only by sleep pauses not more than a few seconds long