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avancna — Desmostylia
Published: 2007-05-09 05:13:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 3537; Favourites: 36; Downloads: 10
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Description
The desmostylians Desmostylus hesperus (top) and Palaeoparadoxia tabetai, of the Miocene Pacific.The desmostylians were strict herbivorous relatives of manatees and dugongs... They could be described as looking like pigeon-toed hippos who were in dire need of an orthodontist.
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Comments: 8
Very cool critters! Wonder if a C. megalodon ever took a crack at one of them...
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Probably not: Desmostylians stuck to coastal waters too shallow for C. megalodon.
Several fossils suggest that smaller sharks tended to attack them, instead.
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Palaeoparadoxia tabetai looks like a Miocene mammalian version of Placodus nostratus.
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Good point.
Though, we can't tell if Placodus ate seaweed, too.
We can tell that that the desmostylians only ate seaweed because their teeth have been chemically analyzed.
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I'm not sure.
The skeletons of Palaeoparadoxia give me the impression that they were not landlubbers by any stretch.
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interesting critters. looked and lived like hippos but were related to sea cows and elephants.
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Pigeon-toed hippos, in fact.
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