Eotheroides
Sign in to saveEotheroides is an extinct genus of Eocene sirenian. It is an early member of the family Dugongidae, which includes the extant dugong. Fossils have been found from Egypt, India, and Madagascar. Eotheroides was first described by Richard Owen in 1875 under the name Eotherium, which was replaced by the current name in 1899.
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Species
- Paleobiology
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Eotheroides is an extinct genus of Eocene sirenian. It is an early member of the family Dugongidae, which includes the extant dugong. Fossils have been found from Egypt, India, and Madagascar. Eotheroides was first described by Richard Owen in 1875 under the name Eotherium, which was replaced by the current name in 1899.
Based on endocranial casts, Eotheroiodes had a smaller endocranial volume than other contemporaneous sirenians such as Protosiren. Unlike extant sirenians, Eotheroides possesses a tentorium cerebelli, which appears as a distinct transverse groove on the skull.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Eotheroides” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.