Rabbit-Size Elephant Ancestor Found -- Oldest Known

nationalgeographic ^ | June 23, 2009 | Mark Anderson

[JoeProBono]

After the dinosaurs perished, life on Earth didn't take long to bounce back, a new study suggests.

A newfound 60-million-year-old creature called Eritherium azzouzorum—the oldest known elephant ancestor—bolsters the case that whole new orders of mammals were already around less than 6 million years after global catastrophe ended the age of reptiles some 65.5 million years ago.

Paleontologist Emmanuel Gheerbrant discovered the rabbit-size proto-elephant's skull fragments in a basin 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Casablanca, Morocco.

Elephant ancestors, he said, now join the likes of rodents and early primates as some of the first known mammals to walk the Earth during the Paleocene era, 65.5 to 55 million years ago (prehistoric time line).

Much of the story of the newly discovered creature, said Gheerbrant, of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, can be found in its teeth. Two of the creature's lower front teeth jut a fraction of an inch out from its jaw. No other fossils of the time have teeth like this.

"This is some kind of precursor of the tusk of the more modern [elephant]," Gheerbrant said.

Based on the skull fragments, Gheerbrant guessed that the proto-elephant was probably no more than 20 inches (50 centimeters), tip to tail—"something like a very large rabbit," size wise.

[editor-surveyor]

Read carefully!

What did they find?

[JoeProBono]

[NMEwithin]

I apologize for the hijack...here is a tiny elephant in the wild...or is it? ;)

[EternalVigilance]

Based on the skull fragments, Gheerbrant guessed

What passes for "science" these days.

[Varda]

I want one.

[wildbill]

Behold! The Mini Mammoth

[Daffynition]

LOL ... You can dream!

[How ya doin' CD? We're still not out of about a month of monsoon weather ...my tomato plants are starting to yellow without the sun!]

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]

[piasa]

Based on the skull fragments, Gheerbrant guessed that the proto-elephant was probably no more than 20 inches (50 centimeters), tip to tail—"something like a very large rabbit," size wise.

I wonder if what they are looking at is a proto-hyrax. The small rodent-like albeit hooved hyrax are considered by some to be related to elephants.

[JoeProBono]

HaHaHaHa!! You're too good.

[piasa]

Two of the creature's lower front teeth jut a fraction of an inch out from its jaw. No other fossils of the time have teeth like this. "This is some kind of precursor of the tusk of the more modern [elephant]," Gheerbrant said.

Sounds more like the lower front teeth of a modern hyrax.

[Constitution Day]

Tomato plants are doing great here.

We’ve had just about the right amount of rain and the corn and squash are already coming off.

[conservativeharleyguy]

Will it fit in my crock-pot?

[Just mythoughts]

Their problem is not WHAT they found it is their dating methodology used to plug the holes in their dating dikes.

[JoeProBono]

[editor-surveyor]

Harvey?

[editor-surveyor]

"Their problem is not WHAT they found..."

Skull fragments! - This is the Pecary tooth all over again.

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]