Behemotops
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Behemotops Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Desmostylia |
| Family: | †Desmostylidae |
| Genus: | †Behemotops Domning, Ray & McKenna 1986 |
| Type species | |
| * †Behemotops proteus Domning, Ray & McKenna 1986 | |
| Other species[1] | |
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Behemotops (from the Biblical monster Behemoth, by Linnaeus and others believed to be a hippo)[2] is an extinct genus of herbivorous marine mammal. It lived from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) through the Late Oligocene (33.9 mya—23 Mya), existing for approximately 10.9 million years. It is the most primitive known desmostylian, believed to be close to the ancestry of all other desmostylians.
Formerly placed in Behemotops
In comparison with later known desmostylians, Behemotops had more elephantine tooth and jaw features. It had cusped molars that more resembled those of mastodons or other land ungulates than those of later Desmostylus, which exhibited odd "bound-pillar" shaped molars which may have evolved in response to the grit from a diet of sea-grass. Discovery of Behemotops helped place desmostylians as more closely related to proboscideans than sirenians, although relationships of this group are still poorly resolved.[3]
B. proteus was larger than Desmostylus, measuring 323 cm (10.60 ft) in length, 120 cm (3.9 ft) in height and 1,979 kilograms (4,363 lb) in body mass.[4] B. katsuiei had an estimated body length of 290 cm (110 in),[5] making it the smaller of the two species.[6]
Behemotops emlongi, also described in 1986, was placed in the synonymy of B. proteus in 1994,[7] but was later placed in its own genus, Seuku, in 2014.[8] The first specimen, USNM 186889, a massive tusk in fragments of a mandible — was found in Lincoln County, Oregon (44°29′50″N 124°05′00″W / 44.49722°N 124.08333°W)[9] in 1969. In 1977, at the same location, fossil collector Douglas Emlong discovered a poorly preserved half right mandible — USNM 244033 — matching the first specimen. This mandible became the holotype of Seuku emlongi (then described as B. emlongi) when described by Domning, Ray & McKenna 1986.[10] B. emlongi was later eventually made a synonym of B. proteus in 1994,[7] before being removed from the genus altogether.
