Extinct sea cow fossil found in Philippines

Yahoo ^ | 6/6/11 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

MANILA (AFP) – The bones of an extinct sea cow species that lived about 20 million years ago have been discovered in a cave in the Philippines by a team of Italian scientists, the expedition head said Monday.

Several ribs and spine parts of the aquatic mammal were found in February and March in limestone rock above the waters of an underground river on the island of Palawan, said University of Florence geologist Leonardo Piccini.

"The fossil is in the rock, in the cave. We cannot remove it and we don't want to extract it. We would like to wait (for) when the technology will allow us to study the fossil without extracting it," Piccini told AFP.

Speaking on the sidelines of a symposium at the Philippine presidential palace where the find was announced, Piccini said it was a rare discovery in the region from the Miocene era -- 20 million years ago.

"It's the first remains of this kind of animal in the area, so it is important in reconstructing the habitat and the diffusions of this animal in the Miocene," he added.

Initial comparisons with fossil specimens suggest it belongs to one of two extinct species of plant-eating sirenia, also known as sea cows, according to research by Federico Panti and Paolo Forti, a member of the Palawan expedition.

They said the animal would have been about 180 centimetres (about six feet) long.

Two sea cow species live to this day, the dugong of the Indo-Pacific region and manatees of the Atlantic basin.

[NormsRevenge]

(L-R) Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hegedorn, Philippine President Benigno Aquino, New 7 Wonders of Nature Organization President Bernard Weber, and Johnpaul De La Fuente pose for photos at Malacañang palace in Manila. The bones of a likely extinct sea cow that lived about 20 million years ago have been discovered in an underground cave, a rare find in the Far East, the expedition head said. (AFP/Jay Directo)

[Sacajaweau]

The oceans are sooooo huge. Extinct is likely theoretical.

[EscapedDutch]

[massgopguy]

There’s a 40’ Kronosaur skeleton at The Harvard Museum of Natural History. You want this thing to be extinct.

[null and void]

NIBTHTP...

[camle]

hillary is NOT extinct!!!

[WinMod70]

“Extinct sea cow fossil found in Philippines”

I guess this means the fossil is no longer extinct.

[FW190]

SEA COW

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Thanks NormsRevenge. I wish I could say, "in before the Helen Thomas pic". To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[Beowulf9]

The creature when spotted from afar, a gentle sea cow, the origin of mythical mermaid. What romances a man may dream.