Desmostylus Tooth Unerupted Replica

$34.00

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 Tooth Unerupted Replica measures 4.0 in. high. Desmostylus Tooth Unerupted Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. Made in USA. Unerupted molar of a pony-sized mammal of Miocene North Pacific. Shark’s Tooth Hill. Buena Vista MNH. Our precise tooth can be used as a teaching tool, museum tooth exhibit, home décor tooth, or office décor tooth. Vanderhoofius coalingensis is the scientific name.

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 coalingens is 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.

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

Desmostylus or 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.

Desmostylus or 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.

Several other species of Vanderhoofius coalingensis 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.

Desmostylus Facts:

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

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Additional information

Weight 2 lbs
Dimensions 4 in