| Jaggermeryx Temporal range: Early Miocene ~ | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | † Anthracotheriidae |
| Genus: | † Jaggermeryx |
| Species: | †J. naida |
| Binomial name | |
| †Jaggermeryx naida Miller et al., 2014 [1] | |
Jaggermeryx is an extinct genus of semiaquatic anthracothere, ungulates related to hippopotamuses, from the Early Miocene Moghara Formation in Egypt. The genus was named after Mick Jagger.
Its genus name, Jaggermeryx is derived from Jagger, after Mick Jagger, and meryx, the Greek word means ruminant, which is common suffix for genus name of artiodactyls. Species name, naida is derived from Naias, the Greek word means water nymph. [1]
It was named after Mick Jagger, lead singer for The Rolling Stones, because of its oversized lips. [2] There was some debate among the team as to whether it should instead be named after Angelina Jolie. "Some of my colleagues suggested naming the new species after Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, because she also has famous lips," said lead author Ellen Miller. [3] [4] It was eventually settled to name the species after Jagger when co-author Gregg Gunnell sided with Miller. [5]
The first fossils of the species were described in a monograph published by a French scientist in 1918. [6] It was not until 2014, however, that the fossils were identified as a unique species from further specimens collected at Wadi Moghra in the Qattara Depression of Egypt. [1] The fossils have been deposited at the Cairo Geological Museum, Cairo University, and Duke University. [5] [7]
At the site, six species of anthracotheres were discovered, but this sample was unlike other family members because of "a series of tiny holes on either side of its jaw that held the nerves providing sensation to the chin and lower lip." [2]
The National Science Foundation supported the research. [8]
The size of a small deer, J. naida probably looked somewhat like a skinny hippopotamus out-crossed with a long-legged pig. Fossilized jawbones contain a number of mental foramina, [8] eight on each side of the jaw, [3] indicating that the species had very sensitive lips and a mobile snout. [8] [9]
J. naida lived in the Qattara Depression around 19 million years ago, during the early Miocene. At that time the area, which is currently arid, was a tropical swamp. [10] Jaggermeryx fossils have been found alongside those of catfish, turtles, and waterbirds, as well as six other species of anthracotheres and a number of crocodile coprolites. [8]
The species was herbivorous, feeding on grasses and plants beside the water. [7] [11] Judging by the low oxygen isotope values of its teeth, J. naida is believed to have been semiaquatic, likely spending most of the time when it was not feeding in the water, not unlike a hippopotamus. [8]
The hippopotamus, also shortened to hippo, further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus. Its name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse" (ἱπποπόταμος).
Artiodactyls are mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla. Typically, they are ungulates which bear weight equally on two of their five toes: the third and fourth, often in the form of a hoof. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. By contrast, most perissodactyls bear weight on an odd number of the five toes. Another difference between the two is that many artiodactyls digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as perissodactyls do. The advent of molecular biology, along with new fossil discoveries, found that cetaceans fall within this taxonomic branch, being most closely related to hippopotamuses. Some modern taxonomists thus apply the name Cetartiodactyla to this group, while others opt to include cetaceans within the existing name of Artiodactyla. Some researchers use "even-toed ungulates" to exclude cetaceans and only include terrestrial artiodactyls, making the term paraphyletic in nature.
Hippopotamidae is a family of stout, naked-skinned, and semiaquatic artiodactyl mammals, possessing three-chambered stomachs and walking on four toes on each foot. While they resemble pigs physiologically, their closest living relatives are the cetaceans. They are sometimes referred to as hippopotamids.
The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It has been extirpated from Nigeria.
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Pakicetus is an extinct genus of amphibious cetacean of the family Pakicetidae, which was endemic to Pakistan during the Ypresian period, about 50 million years ago. It was a wolf-like animal, about 1 metre to 2 metres long, and lived in and around water where it ate fish and other small animals. The vast majority of paleontologists regard it as the most basal whale, representing a transitional stage between land mammals and whales. It belongs to the even-toed ungulates with the closest living non-cetacean relative being the hippopotamus.
Theosodon is an extinct genus of litoptern mammal from the Early to Middle Miocene of South America.
Metamynodon is an extinct genus of amynodont that lived in North America and Asia from the late Eocene until early Oligocene, although the questionable inclusion of M. mckinneyi could extend their range to the Middle Eocene. The various species were large, displaying a suit of semiaquatic adaptations more similar to those of the modern hippopotamus, despite their closer affinities with rhinoceroses.
Anthracotheriidae is a paraphyletic family of extinct, hippopotamus-like artiodactyl ungulates related to hippopotamuses and whales. The oldest genus, Elomeryx, first appeared during the middle Eocene in Asia. They thrived in Africa and Eurasia, with a few species ultimately entering North America during the Oligocene. They died out in Europe and Africa during the Miocene, possibly due to a combination of climatic changes and competition with other artiodactyls, including pigs and true hippopotamuses. The youngest genus, Merycopotamus, died out in Asia during the late Pliocene, possibly for the same reasons. The family is named after the first genus discovered, Anthracotherium, which means "coal beast", as the first fossils of it were found in Paleogene-aged coal beds in France. Fossil remains of the anthracothere genus were discovered by the Harvard University and Geological Survey of Pakistan joint research project (Y-GSP) in the well-dated middle and late Miocene deposits of the Pothohar Plateau in northern Pakistan.
La Venta is a fossil locality located in the modern departments of Tolima and Huila in Colombia. This site is one of the richest Neogene fossil assemblages in South America and represents the best-known Cenozoic fossil site outside of Argentina. It provides a glimpse of what life in the region was like before the main wave of the Great American Interchange.
The history of invertebrate paleozoology differs from the history of paleontology in that the former usually emphasizes paleobiology and the paleoecology of extinct marine invertebrates, while the latter typically emphasizes the earth sciences and the sedimentary rock remains of terrestrial vertebrates.
Artiocetus is an extinct genus of early whales belonging to the family Protocetidae. It was a close relative to Rodhocetus and its tarsals indicate it resembled an artiodactyl.
Aegrotocatellus is a genus of trilobite in the order Phacopida, which existed in what is now Nunavut, Canada. It was named by Adrain and Edgecombe in 1995, and the type species is Aegrotocatellus jaggeri, a species named after British musician Mick Jagger.
Perirehaedulus richardsi is a species of trilobites named after British musician Keith Richards.
Nyanzachoerus is an extinct genus of the pig family (Suidae) belonging to the subfamily Tetraconodontinae. The several species of Nyanzachoerus lived in Africa from the Miocene to Pliocene.
Paleontology in Illinois refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Illinois. Scientists have found that Illinois was covered by a sea during the Paleozoic Era. Over time this sea was inhabited by animals including brachiopods, clams, corals, crinoids, sea snails, sponges, and trilobites.
Anomphalus jaggerius is an extinct species of Permian sea snail. Fossils have been found in Artinskian era limestone from the Bird Spring Formation in the southern Arrow Canyon Range of the US State of Nevada. The species, which had a shell 6.37 millimetres (0.251 in) wide, was a subtidal epifaunal grazer. It was named after Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger.
Ancodonta is an infraorder of semiaquatic artiodactyl ungulates including modern hippopotamus and all mammals closer to hippos than to cetaceans (whales). Ancodonts first appeared in the Middle Eocene, with some of the earliest representatives found in fossil deposits in Southeast Asia. Throughout their evolutionary history they have occupied different browsing and grazing niches in North America, Eurasia and Africa. The last continent is notable as they were among the first laurasiatherian mammals to have migrated to Africa from Europe, where they competed with the native afrothere herbivores for the same niches. Of the nearly 50 genera that have existed, only two of them are extant – Choeropsis and Hippopotamus. The interrelationships within the ancodonts has been contended. The traditional notion is that there at minimum two families Anthracotheriidae and Hippopotamidae and were merely sister taxa. However many detailed research of the dentition among ancodonts, as well as how some anthracotheres were similar to hippos in appearance, lead the current consensus where Anthracotheriidae is paraphyletic to Hippopotamidae. Among the anthracotheres members of Bothriodontinae are among the closest to the ancestry of hippos, with the Oligocene aged Epirigenys from Lokon, Turkana, Kenya being the sister taxon to hippos. In response of this many similar clade names have been used for this clade.
