Desmostylus Miocene Mammal Teeth from California

Description: Presented is an affordable and quality smaller teeth cluster. It is solid with excellent enamel and presence.

These are the teeth of Desmostylus hesperus, an extinct placental mammal from the Middle Miocene Period some 14 - 19 million years ago. Marsh first described Desmostylus in 1888 from fossils in marine deposits in Alameda County, California. Because of their limited stratigraphic range (Western North America and Japan), the unusual form of teeth that confounds determining what they ate, and their apparent combined terrestrial and marine lifestyle, they are placed in their own Order Desmostyidia within Class Mammalia. Desmostylus leaves no direct descendents, but is putatively an ancient, genetic cousin to the sea cow and elephant. Desmostylus teeth are quite rare, especially ones of this excellence. (Please read the last paragraph for more details of how I obtained it.)

Marsh first described Desmostylus in 1888 from fossils in marine deposits in Alameda County, California. Because of their limited stratigraphic range (Western North America and Japan), the unusual form of teeth that confounds determining what they ate, and their apparent combined terrestrial and marine lifestyle, they are placed in their own Order Desmostyidia within Class Mammalia

The name Desmostylus comes from the Greek and means, "linked pillars". These semi-marine mammals had bodies resembling a hippopotamus, with four stout legs and four small tusks. They might have paddled around shallow water crushing shellfish for food with their heavy, columnar teeth or they may have been herbivores, or omnivores. Their closest living relatives are the Proboscidea (elephants) and Sirenia (manatees), such that they belong to the clade Afrotheria. Desmostylians grew nearly two meters in length and are thought to have weighed more than 1500 pounds.

This fossil comes from the George Lee Collection of Southern California. Mr. Lee accumulated a virtual where house of fossils over thirty-five years of self-collecting and purchasing. Most of the fossils were acquired during the 1960s through the mid 1990s. Unfortunately, for we collectors, many of these sites and areas are no longer available for collecting. Therefore, many of my offerings are of special importance, as they are now rarely available to the public. Since Mr. Lee’s death, a few years ago, the collection has slowly been liquidated.
This fossil came from one of the last available batches sold.