Aquatic elephant in the Faiyum

National Geographic

Anyone who has visited Wadi Al Hitan (Valley of the Whales) in Egypt's Faiyum Depression will know how rich the fossil past of this former shoreline actually is. Remains of Moeritherium have now been found in the area, which date to 37 million years ago (the late Eocene).

The family tree of the largest living land animal may have its roots deep in the water, a new study suggests.

Chemical signatures from fossil teeth reveal that at least one species of proboscidean, an ancient elephant relative, lived in an aquatic environment.

The teeth of the ancient animal, which belonged to a genus called Moeritherium, suggest that it ate freshwater plants and dwelled in swamps or river systems, said Alexander Liu of Oxford University's department of earth sciences.

"Essentially it's a hippo-like mode of life. That's the closest animal that we can think of today," said Liu, lead author of recent research on the teeth.

See the above page for the full story, which is accompanied by an artist's impression of the appearence of the animal.

MSNBC

"I think it’s the first real evidence that there is a semi-aquatic lineage to the elephants," said Alexander Liu, a graduate student in paleobiology at Oxford University. "It's something that people have expected but not been able to actually show."

Moeritherium had a large body, small eyes set high on its long snout, and the very beginnings of what would become a trunk.

Liu, along with Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University and Elwyn Simons of Duke University, analyzed the teeth enamel of moeritherium, which lived in the Eocene epoch, more than 37 million years ago. By measuring chemical signatures in the enamel, the researchers were able to learn what the animal ate and whether its food came primarily from land or water.