- Desmostylidae
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Desmostylidae
Temporal range: Early-Late OligoceneScientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Infraclass: Eutheria Superorder: Afrotheria Order: †Desmostylia Desmostylidae is an extinct family of herbivorous marine mammal belonging to the order of Desmostylia living along the coast of the Pacific Ocean from the Rupelian stage of the Early Oligocene through the Chattian stage of the Late Oligocene (33.9 mya—20.0 Mya) existing for approximately 13.9 million years.[1]
Desmostylidae are hippopotamus-like creatures.
Contents
Taxonomy
Desmostylidae was named by H. F. Osborn (1905).[2] It was assigned to Sirenia by Osborn (1905); to Proboscidea by Abel (1919); to Desmostyliformes by Simpson (1932), Kretzoi (1941) and Reinhart (1959); to Desmostylia by McKenna and Bell (1997); and to Desmostylia by Carroll (1988), Inuzuka et al. (1995), Inuzuka (2000) and Barnes and Goedert (2001).
Genera
Desmostylidae include the genus Behemotops, Desmostylus, Kronokotherium, Paleoparadoxia, Vanderhoofius.
Subtaxa
Ashoroa
Sister taxa
Behemotopsidae, Paleoparadoxiidae
References
- ^ Paledobiology Database: Desmostylidae
- ^ H. F. Osborn. 1905. Ten years progress in the mammalian Palaeontology of North America. Extrait des Comptes rendus du 6e Congres international de Zoologie. Session de Berne 1904
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