the species was described by two separate authors, lebeck and roxburgh, in 1801, and it is unclear to whom the original description should be ascribed. until the 1970s, the south asian river dolphin was regarded as a single species. the two subspecies are geographically separate and have not interbred for many hundreds if not thousands of years. based on differences in skull structure, vertebrae and lipid composition scientists declared the two populations as separate species in the early 1970s. in 1998, the results of these studies were questioned and the classification reverted to the pre-1970 consensus of a single species containing two subspecies until the taxonomy could be resolved using modern techniques such as molecular sequencing. the latest analyses of mitochondrial dna of the two populations did not display the variances needed to support their classification as separate species. thus, at present, a single species with two subspecies is recognized in the genus "platanista", "p. g. gangetica" (ganges river dolphin) and "p. g. minor" (indus river dolphin).