Behemotops

Behemotops
Temporal range: Oligocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Desmostylia
Family: Desmostylidae
Genus: Behemotops
Domning, Ray & McKenna 1986
Type species
* Behemotops proteus
Domning, Ray & McKenna 1986
Other species[1]

Behemotops (from the Biblical monster Behemoth, by Linnaeus and others believed to be a hippo)[2] is an extinct genus of herbivorous marine mammal. It lived from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) through the Late Oligocene (33.9 mya—23 Mya), existing for approximately 10.9 million years. It is the most primitive known desmostylian, believed to be close to the ancestry of all other desmostylians.

  1. ^ Behemotops in the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved June 2013.
  2. ^ Domning, Ray & McKenna 1986, p. 6