#afrotheria

Arsinoitherium zitteli was a large herbivorous mammal living in what is now northern Africa during the late Eocene and early Oligocene, about 36-30 million years ago.

Despite looking like a double-horned rhino this resemblance was only superficial, and for most of the 20th century it was actually the only known representative of an entire order of mammals – the embrithopods – with its wider evolutionary relationships being unknown. Since the 1970s, however, more members of this group have been discovered and embrithopods are now understood to be afrotheres, a very early offshoot of the tethythere lineage, with their closest living relatives being modern elephants and sirenians.

Arsinoitherium was by far the most abundant embrithopod, with numerous fossil remains making it one of the most completely known African fossil mammals. It stood around 1.8m tall at the shoulder (6'), similar in size to modern white rhinos, and would have been a massively-built slow-moving animal with elephant-like columnar limbs.

Its pair of enormous nose horns (and smaller brow horns) were structurally more similar to those of bovids than rhinos, with large hollow bony cores that probably bore thick keratinous sheaths that would have increased their apparent size even more. Both males and females appear to have had these horns, and muscle attachments at the back of the skull suggest Arsinoitherium could powerfully swing its head upwards – possibly wrestling with each other in combat over territories, competing for mates, or in establishing dominance hierarchies.

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Namib Round-eared Sengi Macroscelides flavicaudatus

A sengi found in the central Namib desert and southern Namibia. Also called elephant shrews, but they are neither shrews nor elephants.

Bob Kuhn (1920-2007). Elephants in the African Veldt. Acrylic on Masonite. Painted in 1962.

🧬DNA sequencing has revealed that elephants belong in a superorder called Afrotheria—meet their closest relatives!

🐘Learn more at the Museum’s new exhibition The Secret World of Elephants. Discover new science about both ancient and modern elephants, see full-scale models of proboscideans, and more.

It's always a good day to learn about hyraxes!

I've seen a lot of people slandering what I think is one of the coolest mammals alive today. Calling it things such as "some bullshit with fur," "John Mammal," "Early Game Normal Type Pokemon," "Dinosaur Food," etc.

I need you all to respect the Rock Hyrax. They are trying their best ok?

But aside from that, I came across a post on social media that honestly resonates with me.

Hyraxes are a unique mammal found in Africa and West Asia. They belong to an ancient group of mammals called Afrotheria, which seem to have diversified very early in the Paleozoic Era.

(Image: Afrotheria, en.wikipedia.org)

Afrotheria is one of those clades of animals which were firmed up thanks to research in genetic relations, because the members of this clade are so disparate morphologically (somewhat, there has been research proposing relations among some of these mammals before DNA studies).

Anyways, I have come to one conclusion:

All of Afrotheria are just John Mammal miscellaneous bullshit.

(Image: Sirenia, en.wikipedia.org)

Manatees & Dugongs: some bullshit in the ocean (seriously Sirenians just look like a hastily made blender model sometimes)

(Image: Elephant shrew, en.wikipedia.org) Elephant Shrews: some bullshit with a nose (looks like a mid game Spore creature)

(Image: Golden Mole, en.wikipedia.org)

Golden Moles: some bullshit in the ground (superficially look very much like normal moles, great example of convergent evolution)

(Image: Aardvark, en.wikipedia.org)

Aardvarks: some bullshit overall. Between the big claws, big ears, & absolute schnozz it looks like something made of leftover parts. Would make a great Ground/Normal type Pokemon.

(Image: Tenrec-em.wikipedia.org) Tenrecs: Equally Some Bullshit with fur as the Hyrax is. They look even more like a generic mesozoic mammal that someone hastily included in their paleoart.

Ok, you have me there.

Elephants aren't *AS* bullshit as a Hyrax, but they are bullshit in their own way.

Proboscideans are fucked up. You should not be able to do all that with just your nose and your upper lip. They have evolved thousands of muscles for this. It's not fair, I want one.

God I love elephants. They are what come to mind when I think of the word "Animal". Truly iconic.

This post is mostly tongue-in-cheek. I just think that Hyrax slander is unfair when plenty of animals look like some thrown-together bullshit.

See you underground,