Bibliography Record

 
 
Diedrich, Cajus G. (detail)
   
2013a
The most northerly record of the sirenian Protosiren and the possible polyphyletic evolution of manatees and dugongs.
Natural Science 5(11): 1154-1164. 4 figs. DOI: 10.4236/ns.2013.511142 Nov. 4, 2013.
–ABSTRACT: Newly discovered remains of the early Middle Eocene (Lutetian) sirenian Protosiren (Protosirenidae) in shark tooth rich conglomerates from a coastal delta environment northwest of the European Rhenish Massif at Fürstenau (northwestern Germany), represent the most northerly occurrence of this genus whose global distribution was generally restricted to warm waters. Its presence of the remains so far north can be explained by seasonal inflow of warm Tethys surface water into the cool, upwelling-influenced, basin. The existence of two discrete centers of sirenian evolution can be explained by the opening of the Atlantic and the upwelling that separated the North American warm water faunal province from those of Africa and Eurasia. A slightly modified evolutionary model is presented in which the oldest Early Eocene manatee sirenians evolved in the Caribbean of Central America. Protosiren, however, appears to have developed polyphyletically along the African coastline of the Tethys, and represents the oldest known dugong ancestor. Younger (Oligocene) European sirenian skeletons of Halitherium and Anomotherium are included in the phylostratigraphic model in which sirenians had generally reduced their teeth by 28 Ma as an adaptation for feeding on sea-plants (macroalgae/seagrass). Teeth from early megatooth sharks, which preyed on sirenians, have been recorded from shallow marine Eocene and Oligocene coastlines of the southern proto-North Sea Basin, and shark bite marks have been found on sirenian skeletons.

Related Index Records (7)

Anomotherium langewieschei Siegfried, 1965
  2013a Diedrich, C.G. (paleobiogeography)

Eocene
  2013a Diedrich, C.G. (Protosiren cf. fraasi; Middle Eoc., Germany)

Germany
  2013a Diedrich, C.G. (Protosiren cf. fraasi; Middle Eoc., Fürstenau, Germany; shark predation; paleobiogeography)

Halitherium schinzii (Kaup, 1838) Kaup, 1855
  2013a Diedrich, C.G. (Germany; paleobiogeography; shark predation)

Natural Enemies
(SEE ALSO: Natural Death or Injury)
  2013a Diedrich, C.G. (Halitherium schinzii; Germany; shark predation)

Phylogeny and Affinities of the Sirenia and/or Desmostylia
(SEE ALSO under species)
  2013a Diedrich, C.G. (?polyphyly of sirs.)

Protosiren fraasi Abel, 1907
  2013a Diedrich, C.G. (Protosiren cf. fraasi; Middle Eoc., Germany; paleobiogeography)


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