Desmostylus Molar Worn Replica

$24.00

Recent isotope work indicates that Desmostylus more likely lived (or spent a large amount of time) in freshwater or estuary ecosystems foraging for aquatic freshwater plants.

Description

Desmostylus Molar Worn Replica measures 3.9 in high. Desmostylus Molar Worn Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast made in USA. Our precise molar can be used as a teaching tool, museum molar exhibit, home décor molar, or office décor molar.

Worn molar of the Seahorse of Miocene North Pacific Coastal waters. Shark’s Tooth Hill, Buena Vista MHN. Desmostylus scientific name is Vanderhoofius coalingensis.

Desmostylus or Vanderhoofius coalingensis was a large, hippopotamus-like creature of about 6 feet long which weighed about 440 lbs. It had a short tail and powerful legs with four hooves. Both the creature’s jaws were elongated and sported forward-facing tusks, which were elongated canines and incisors.

Most likely fully aquatic, Desmostylus or Vanderhoofius coalingensis is thought to have lived in shallow water in coastal regions, usually less than 30 meters deep.

Recent isotope work indicates that Desmostylus more likely lived (or spent a large amount of time) in freshwater or estuary ecosystems foraging for aquatic freshwater plants.

Its less dense bone structure suggests that Desmostylus Vanderhoofius coalingensis had a lifestyle of active swimming and possibly feeding at the surface, unlike other Desmostylians that were primarily slow swimmers and or bottom walkers and sea grass feeders.

Vanderhoofius coalingensis are extinct, semi-aquatic marine mammals that inhabited coastlines of the Northern Pacific Rim during the late Oligocene through middle Miocene.

The first Desmostylian fossil was described from California by Othniel Charles Marsh (1888). This was a partial upper molar with three conjoined pillars or columns of enamel, which Marsh proposed the name Desmostylus or Vanderhoofius coalingensis.

Vanderhoofius coalingensis fossils have been discovered from along the northern Pacific Rim from Baja California Peninsula northward along the coast of California, Oregon, Washington and west to Sakhalin Island, Hokkaido, Japan, and south to the Shimane Prefecture, Japan.

Several other species were later described based on minor differences in tooth morphology. Most or all of these species have been synonymized with D. hesperus since variation in tooth morphology between individuals assigned to one of these species has proven to be to greater than the differences between species.

Shop More Museum Quality Desmostylus Teeth in Desmostylus Tooth Store

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Desmostylia
Genus: Desmostylus
Family: Desmostylidae
Species: D. hesperus

Additional information

Weight 1.8 lbs
Dimensions 3.9 in
Desmostylus Facts:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Desmostylia
Family: †Desmostylidae
Genus: †Desmostylus
Species: †D. hesperus
Conservation Status: Extinct