Protosiren
Protosiren Temporal range: [1]
| |
---|---|
Drawing of skeleton | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Sirenia |
Family: | †Protosirenidae |
Genus: | †Protosiren Abel, 1904 |
Species | |
|
Protosiren is an extinct early genus of the order Sirenia. Protosiren existed throughout the Lutetian to Priabonian stages of the Middle Eocene. Fossils have been found in the far-flung locations like the United States (South Carolina,[2] North Carolina and Florida[3]), Africa (Egypt), Europe (France, Germany[citation needed] and Hungary) and Asia (India and Pakistan).
So far, five species have been named. From comparative anatomy and chronological order,[4][5] it has been suggested that P. fraasi, P. sattaensis and P. smithae represent an ancestor-descendant lineage.[5] P. eothene is the oldest and smallest species.[6]
Ecology
Like the
sea grasses as well as freshwater plants. Unlike extant sirenians, Protosiren had hind limbs. Although the limbs were well-developed, they were small and the sacroiliac joint was weak. Consequently, Protosiren is thought to have been only or primarily aquatic, rarely venturing on to land.[7][8] It has been speculated that it swam by caudal undulation and used its hind limbs to crawl along sea floors in nearshore habitats while feeding. It might have occupied a different ecological niche than the contemporary Eotheroides, which had a closer resemblance to modern sirenians.[7]
See also
References
- PMID 29572454.
- .
- ^ Bryan, Jonathan R., Scott, Thomas M., Mean, Guy H., 2008. Roadside Geology of Florida. Mountain Press.
- ^ Gingerich P.D., Arif M, Bhatti M.A., Anwar M & Sanders W.J. (1997). "Basilosaurus drazindai and Basiloterus hussaini, New Archaeoceti (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Middle Eocene Drazinda Formation, with a Revised Interpretation of Ages of Whale-Bearing Strata in the Kirthar Group of the Sulaiman Range, Punjab (Pakistan)". Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan 30(2): p. 55–81
- ^ a b Gingerich P.D., Muhammad A, Bhatti M.A., Raza H.A. & Raza S.M. (1995). "Protosiren and Babiacetus (Mammalia, Sirenia and Cetacea) from the Middle Eocene Drazinda Formation, Sulaiman Range, Punjab (Pakistan)". Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology 29(12): p. 331–57.
- ^ Zalmout I.S., Ul-Haq M. & Gingerich P.D. (2003). "New species of Protosiren (Mammalia, Sirenia) from the early middle Eocene of Balochistan (Pakistan)". Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology 31(3): p. 79-87
- ^ a b 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
- ^ Berta, Annalisa, 2017. Rise of Marine Mammals: 50 Million Years of Evolution. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Domning, D. P.; Morgan, G. S.; Ray, C. E. (1982). North American Eocene sea cows (Mammalia: Sirenia). Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology Number 52. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
External links
- Protosiren at The Paleobiology Database.