Ancestors Lived Similar To Hippos According To New Evidence
Stony Brook, NY (eCanadaNow) - Many of the ancestors of today’s elephants appear to have come from swamps and freshwater bogs, according to the record displayed in fossils.
In a study that was published Tuesday, researchers have discovered that ancestors of today’s elephants appear to have lived in rivers, swamps and freshwater bogs, much as the hippo does in present day times.
Scientists at Stony Brook University and Oxford University worked together on a fossil study that was published this week, and reveal that the signatures chemically reveal fossilized teeth from nearly 37 million years ago.
Evidence suggests that the large mammals consumed plants that were freshwater in origin and had many aquatic tendencies. One of the newly discovered mammals, Moeritherium, is much in common with the present day tapir, and may have had an upper lip instead of a trunk.
The other mammal featured in the prestigious study: Barytherium, was lesser known and while larger than Moeritherium it does not appear to be as large as elephants are in present times.
These two mammals appear to have lived and inhabited the earth during the Eocene epoch. The recovered fossil record was from north Egypt, which at one time was a sub tropical like place, but is today a dessert.
