''Moeritherium'' ("the beast from

Lake Moeris Lake Moeris ( grc, Μοῖρις, genitive Μοίριδος) is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake, with an area estimated to vary between and . It persists ...

") is an extinct genus of primitive proboscideans. These prehistoric mammals are related to the

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

and, more distantly,

sea cow The Sirenia (), commonly referred to as sea-cows or sirenians, are an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. The Sirenia currently comprise two distinct f ...

s and

hyraxes Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Typically, they measure between long and weigh between . They are superficially simi ...

. They lived during the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

epoch.

Description

''Moeritherium'' was a rotund semi-aquatic mammal with short, stubby legs that lived about 37-35 million years ago Koehl, D. 200
The genus ''Moeritherium'', ancestor of elephants.
Downloaded on 6 December 2006. Its body shape and lifestyle demonstrate convergent evolution with

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inh ...

s, and the

pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It has ...

. ''Moeritherium'' was smaller than most or all later proboscideans, standing only high at the shoulder and weighing . The shape of their

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, t ...

suggests that they ate soft water vegetation. The shape of the skull suggests that, while ''Moeritherium'' did not have an elephant-like trunk, it may have had a broad flexible upper lip like a tapir's for grasping aquatic vegetation. The second

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

teeth formed small tusks, although these would have looked more like the teeth of a hippo than a modern elephant. Moeritherium NT small

Discovery

In 1901,

Charles William Andrews Charles William Andrews (30 October 1866 – 25 May 1924) F.R.S., was a British palaeontologist whose career as a vertebrate paleontologist, both as a curator and in the field, was spent in the services of the British Museum, Department of Ge ...

described ''Moeritherium lyonsi'' from fossil remains found in the

Qasr el Sagha Formation The Qasr el Sagha Formation is a geological formation located in Egypt. The formation is part of the Wadi El Hitan World Heritage Site. The Qasr el Sagha Formation overlies the Birket Qarun Formation and is overlain by the Gebel Qatrani Formation ...

in the Al Fayyum in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. Andrews described ''Moeritherium gracile'' from fossil remains of a smaller specimen found in the same area in 1902 in a fluvio-marine formation,Matsumoto, H. 1922. Revision of ''Palæomastodon'' and ''Mœritherium''. ''Palæomastodon intermedius'', and ''Phiomia osborni'', new species. ''American Museum Novitates''. Number 51, November 21.Matsumoto, H. 1923. A Contribution to the Knowledge of Mœritherium. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History ; v. 48, article 4. p. 97-140. that is a river estuary wetlands to brackish lagoon paleoenvironment. In 1904, the first ''Moeritherium trigodon'' fossils were discovered by Charles Andrews in the deposits of an oasis in Al Fayyum.ABC Online. 2002
ABC - Science - Beasts - ''Moeritherium'' Factfile
Downloaded on 6 December 2006. It is also found in other sites around North and West Africa.BBC Homepage. 2006

Downloaded on 6 December 2006. In 1911, Max Schlosser of Munich divided ''Moeritherium lyonsi'' into two species: ''Moeritherium lyonsi'', a large form from the Qasr-el-Sagha formation, and a new large species ''M. andrewsi'' from a fluvio-marine formation.Schlosser Max (1911) "Beiträge zur Kenntnis der oligozänen Landsäugetiere aus dem Fayum, Ägypten." ''Beiträge zur Paläontologie und Geologie Österreich-Ungarns'', 24: 1–167. In 2006, ''Moeritherium chehbeurameuri'' has been described from fossil remains found in the early late Eocene locality of

Bir El Ater Bir el Ater ( ar, بئر العاتر) is a city located in far eastern Algeria. It is located towards the border with Tunisia, around 87 kilometers south of Tebessa and just beyond the Sahara. The town has a population of approximately 80,000 inh ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

Classification

''Moeritherium'' is not thought to be directly ancestral to modern elephants; it was a branch of Proboscidea that died out, leaving no descendants. There were several species of other primitive proboscideans in existence during the Eocene, and some, such as ''

Phiomia ''Phiomia'' is an extinct genus of basal proboscid that lived in what is now Northern Africa during the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene some 37–30 million years ago.Strauss, BPrehistoric Elephant Pictures and Profiles/ref> "''Phiomia serridens''" ...

'' and ''

Palaeomastodon ''Palaeomastodon'' an extinct genus of Proboscidea. ''Palaeomastodon'' fossils have been found in Africa, where they lived some 36-35 million years ago. They are believed to be the ancestors of elephants or mastodons. ''Palaeomastodon'' lived in ...

'', looked comparatively more like modern elephants. However, ''Moeritherium'' was clearly a side branch of the proboscidean family tree, having evolved to resemble other rotund semiaquatic mammals such as pigs, tapirs, and hippos instead of having the typical proboscidean body form.Stockdale, M.; Musgrove, L
Ancient Proboscideans
University of Bristol 2011.

In popular culture

In the ''

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

'' franchise, Moeritherium appears as minor characters and initially referred to their name as ''Start''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q131232 Eocene proboscideans Eocene mammals of Africa Prehistoric placental genera Transitional fossils Taxa named by Charles William Andrews Fossil taxa described in 1901