Desmostylidae

Cladus: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Mammalia
Subclassis: Theria
Infraclassis: Placentalia
Ordo: †Desmostylia
Familia: Desmostylidae

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Desmostylidae is an extinct family of herbivorous marine mammal belonging to the order of Desmostylia living along the coast of the Pacific Ocean from the Rupelian stage of the Early Oligocene through the Chattian stage of the Late Oligocene (33.9 mya—20.0 Mya) existing for approximately 13.9 million years.[1].

Desmostylidae are hippopotamus-like creatures.
Taxonomy

Desmostylidae was named by H. F. Osborn (1905).[2] It was assigned to Sirenia by Osborn (1905); to Proboscidea by Abel (1919); to Desmostyliformes by Simpson (1932), Kretzoi (1941) and Reinhart (1959); to Desmostylia by McKenna and Bell (1997); and to Desmostylia by Carroll (1988), Inuzuka et al. (1995), Inuzuka (2000) and Barnes and Goedert (2001).

Genera

Desmostylidae include the genus Behemotops, Desmostylus, Kronokotherium, Paleoparadoxia, Vanderhoofius.

Subtaxa

Ashoroa

Sister taxa

Behemotopsidae, Paleoparadoxiidae

References

1. ^ Paledobiology Database: Desmostylidae
2. ^ H. F. Osborn. 1905. Ten years progress in the mammalian Palaeontology of North America. Extrait des Comptes rendus du 6e Congres international de Zoologie. Session de Berne 1904