Moeritherium

Moeritherium ("Lake Moeris' beast") is an extinct genus of basal proboscideans from the Eocene of North and West Africa. The first specimen was discovered in strata from the Fayum fossil deposits of Egypt. It was named in 1901 by Charles William Andrews, who suggested that it was an early proboscidean, perhaps ancestral to mastodons, although subsequent workers considered it everything from a relative of manatees to a close relative of both clades' common ancestor. Currently, Moeritherium is seen as a proboscidean that, while fairly basal, diverged before the split between elephantiforms and deinotheres. Seven species have been named, though five (M. andrewsi, M. chehbeurameuri, M. gracile, M. lyonsi, and M. trigodon) are currently considered valid. The name comes from Lake Moeris, and the Ancient Greek θηρίον (thēríon), meaning "beast". Moeritherium is unusual even among basal proboscidean standards. The largest species, M. andrewsi, would have stood about 75 cm (30 in; 2 ft 6 in) at the shoulder and weighed 290 kg (640 lb). Like many later members of the group, it had two sets of tusks: the ones on the upper jaw pointed downwards, while those of the mandible (lower jaw) were flat and formed a spade shape. In addition to these tusks, it retained its upper canines, though had lost the lower set. The morphology of the skull, particularly the nasal cavity (which was only slightly retracted), suggests that Moeritherium lacked a trunk. It may have instead possessed a small, tapir-like proboscis, formed from the fusion of the upper lip and the nose, an evolutionary precursor of trunks. Though poorly described in the literature, Moeritherium's torso is known to have been very long, and its limbs were short. These divergent traits have led to comparisons with desmostylians, a lineage of extinct mammals formerly believed to have been relatives of...