Moeritherium

Moeritherium 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 are currently considered valid. The name comes from Lake Moeris, and the Ancient Greek θηρίον (thēríon), meaning "beast".

Moeritherium

Momotarou2012 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MoeritheriidaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Proboscidea
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Proboscidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
235 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 3.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Eocene — about 23 of 25 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 25 occurrencesOligocene49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 4 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 4 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 4 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 4 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41.03 Mya37.71 Mya48.6 Mya26.8 Mya

25 occurrences of Moeritherium on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

25 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Qasr el Sagha — 29.53°N, 30.53°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.66°N, 30.74°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.62°N, 30.69°EJebel Qatrani — 29.64°N, 30.58°ELumachelle calcaire marin — 14.35°N, 16.18°WIdam Unit — 25.71°N, 18.18°EContinental terminal — 16.55°N, 0.33°EBirket Qarun — 29.50°N, 30.50°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Moeritherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Moeritherium and its relatives

Eocene

Where Moeritherium and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

89 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Moeritherium, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

11 references

Each of the 25 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Moeritherium

Credit
Momotarou2012
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Moeritherium sp. · dpc:24617

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMoeritheriidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Andrews 1901