Eosiren
Temporal range: Late Eocene-Oligocene
Skull of E. libyca .
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Sirenia
Family:
Dugongidae
Subfamily:
†Halitheriinae
Genus:
Eosiren

Andrews, 1902
Species
  • E. abeli
  • E. imenti
  • E. libyca
  • E. stromeri
Drawing of skeleton.
E. libyca and an extant manatee by Charles R. Knight, 1907
Size of Eosiren (purple) compared to other Eocene sirenians and a human.

Eosiren is an extinct genus of sea cow that lived during the Late Eocene (later Priabonian) to Early Oligocene (Rupelian).[1] Several fossils have been found in Egypt. It seems like the species E. abeli were contemporaneous with Protosiren and Eotheroides.[1] like them, Eosiren closely resembled modern sirenians. It differs from them by having somewhat larger innominates and possess thigh bones.[1]

Eosiren was first described by vertebrage paleontologist Charles William Andrews in 1902, who distinguished it from the genus Halitherium due to differences in the teeth and mandible.[2] Later that year, Science published a summary of his findings in a collection on advances in zoopaleontology.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 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
  2. ↑ Andrews, C. W. (1902). "II.—Preliminary Note on some Recently Discovered Extinct Vertebrates from Egypt. (Part III.)". Geological Magazine. 9 (7): 291–295. Bibcode:1902GeoM....9..291A. doi:10.1017/S0016756800181178. S2CID 248538038.
  3. ↑ Osborn, H. F. (31 October 1902). "Recent Zoopaleontology". Science. 16 (409): 749–752. Bibcode:1902Sci....16..749O. doi:10.1126/science.16.410.749. JSTOR 1628916. PMID 17776565. Retrieved 27 January 2021.


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