The pakicetids were digitigrade hoofed mammals that are thought to be the earliest known cetaceans, with "Indohyus" being the closest sister group. They lived in the early Eocene, around 50 million years ago. Their fossils were first discovered in North Pakistan in 1979, located at a river not far from the shores of the former Tethys Sea. After the initial discovery, more fossils were found, mainly in the early Eocene fluvial deposits in northern Pakistan and northwestern India. Based on this discovery, pakicetids most likely lived in an arid environment with ephemeral streams and moderately developed floodplains millions of years ago. By using stable oxygen isotopes analysis, they were shown to drink fresh water, implying that they lived around freshwater bodies. Their diet probably included land animals that approached water for drinking or some freshwater aquatic organisms that lived in the river. The elongated cervical vertebrae and the four, fused sacral vertebrae are consistent with artiodactyls, making "Pakicetus" one of the earliest fossils to be recovered from the period following the Cetacea/Artiodactyla divergence event.