Re: Aquatic elephants. Was re:Tears

chris brochu (gator@mail.utexas.edu)
19 Oct 1995 16:11:27 GMT

In article <465k8i$kbe@scotsman.ed.ac.uk> , jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk writes:
>But I don't accept that elephants don't have a marine ancestor. It doen't
>have to share one with sea-cows for this to be true.

Uhhhh, hate to burst your bubble, but....

Some of the earliest-known proboscideans may well have been semiaquatic
(e.g. Moerotherium), but as far as I am aware, they are known from
freshwater deposits, not marine. If we take this evidence literally,
that elephants cry would not be a marine adaptation since they were never
marine at all.

chris