English: Skeletal drawing of
Eotheroides, a basal dugongid from the Eocene period, Egypt. Except being much smaller (about 2 meters long) and possessing relatively larger hip bones (with a small femur) than the extant dugong (
Dugong dugon),
Eotheroides closely resembled the extant member of its family, and probably lived in a similar manner. This skeletal drawing is based on measurements and photos of the specimens UM 111558 and UM 97514 (both attributed to the species
E. sandersi).
[1] The state of the hind limb elements are speculative: at present, only the innominates and femora are known. Based on its morphology, it has been concluded that lower leg elements would have been “very reduced if present at all”.[1] The first version of this file depicted the skeleton with external hind limbs with lower leg and metatarsals, but it has also been argued that Eotheroides, like modern dugongids, "lack[ed] external hind limbs".[2] the present version are drawn to represent this. The femur pointing backward is inspired from the skeletal drawing of "Halitherium published by Voss.[3]
References
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Díaz-Berenguer E, Houssaye A, Badiola A & Canudo J.I. (2020). “The Hind Limbs of Sobrarbesiren cardieli (Eocene, Northeastern Spain) and New Insights into the Locomotion Capabilities of the Quadrupedal Sirenians”, Journal of Mammalian Evolution 27: p. 649–675
- ↑ Voss M (2012). “A new sea cow from the lower Oligocene of western Germany: new indications on the skeletal morphology of Halitheriums schinzii (Mammalia: Sirenia)”. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 86(2): p. 205-217