Moeritherium

Common card · No. 295363

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...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Momotarou2012, CC BY-SA 3.0