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About Indohyus:
About 55 million years ago, at the start of the Eocene epoch, a branch of artiodactyls (the even-toed ungulates represented today by pigs and deer) veered off onto the evolutionary line that slowly led to modern whales. The ancient artiodactyl Indohyus is important because (at least according to some paleontologists) it belonged to a sister group of the earliest prehistoric whales, and was closely related to genera like Pakicetus, which lived a few million years earlier.
Although it doesn't occupy a place on the direct line of whale evolution, Indohyus showed some adaptations to an aquatic environment, most notably a thick, hippopotamus-like coat. More tantalizingly, an analysis of this mammal's teeth shows that it was herbivorous, meaning that primitive whales may have made the transition from a plant to a meat (or at least fish) diet.
