Eosiren
![]() | This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. (July 2017) |
Eosiren Temporal range: Late Eocene-Oligocene
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Skull of E. libyca . | |
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Genus: | Eosiren Abel, 1913
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Eosiren_remains.png/220px-Eosiren_remains.png)
Drawing of skeleton.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Eosiren.jpg/220px-Eosiren.jpg)
E. libyca and an extant manatee by Charles R. Knight
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Eocene_sirenians_size_comparison.png/220px-Eocene_sirenians_size_comparison.png)
Size of Eosiren (purple) compared to other Eocene sirenians and a human.
Eosiren is an extinct genus of sea cow that lived during the Late Eocene (later Priabonian) to Early Oligocene (Rupelian).[1] Several fossils have been found in Egypt. It seems like the species E. abeli were contemporaneous with Protosiren and Eotheroides.[1] like them, Eosiren closely resembled modern sirenians. It differes from them by having somewhat larger innominates and possess thigh bones.[1]
Eosiren was first described by vertebrage paleontologist Charles William Andrews in 1902, who distinguished it from the genus Halitherium due to differences in the teeth and mandible.[2] Later that year, Science published a summary of his findings in a collection on advances in .[3]
References[]
- ^ a b c Zalmout I.S. & Gingerich P.D. (2012), “Late Eocene sea cows (Mammalia, Sirenia) from Wadi al Hitan in the western desert of Fayum, Egypt”, University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology No. 37
- ^ Andrews, C. W. (1902). "II.—Preliminary Note on some Recently Discovered Extinct Vertebrates from Egypt. (Part III.)" (PDF). Geological Magazine. 9 (7): 291. doi:10.1017/S0016756800181178.
- ^ Osborn, H. F. (31 October 1902). "Recent Zoopaleontology". Science. 16 (409): 715. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
Categories:
- Eocene sirenians
- Eocene mammals of Africa
- Prehistoric placental genera
- Taxa named by Othenio Abel
- Fossil taxa described in 1913
- Prehistoric afrotherian stubs