published no earlier than September, thus giving Lebeck the priority. Elisha Gray coined the species name Platanista gangetica in 1835.

This species and the Indus river dolphin, were initially classified as a single species, Platanista gangetica, but in the 1970s both were split into distinct species. However, in the 1990s, both species were again grouped as a single species. However, more recent studies of genes, divergence time, and skull structure