Name:
Desmostylus (Greek for "chain pillar"); pronounced DEZ-moe-STYLE-us
Habitat:
Shorelines of the northern Pacific
Historical Epoch:
Miocene (23-5 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 6 feet long and 500 pounds
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Hippo-like body; shovel-shaped tusks in lower jaw
About Desmostylus:
If you happened across a Desmostylus 10 or 15 million years ago, you might be forgiven for mistaking it for a direct ancestor of either hippopotamuses or elephants: this megafauna mammal had a thick, hippo-like body, and the shovel-shaped tusks jutting out of its lower jaw were reminiscent of prehistoric elephants like Amebelodon. The fact is, though, that this semi-aquatic creature was a true evolutionary one-off, inhabiting its own obscure order ("Desmostylia") on the mammalian family tree. It was once believed that Desmostylus and its equally strange relatives subsisted on seaweed, but a more likely diet now seems to have been the wide range of marine vegetation surrounding the northern Pacific basin.
