🦕 Prehistoric World Map

Pezosiren fossil map

Where fossils of Pezosiren have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 45 million years ago and on today’s map.

Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 45 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →

Pezosiren
Image: Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
GroupEarly mammals
Lived48.07–41.03 million years ago (Lutetian)
PeriodsPaleogene
FamilyProrastomidae
Named byDomning 2001
Fossil records2 occurrences at 1 locations (PBDB)
Found inJamaica
Rock formationsChapelton

About Pezosiren

Pezosiren portelli, also known as the "walking manatee", is a basal sirenian from the early Eocene of Jamaica, 50 million years ago. The type specimen is represented by a Jamaican fossil skeleton, described in 2001 by Daryl Domning, a marine mammal paleontologist at Howard University in Washington, DC. It is believed to have had a hippopotamus-like amphibious lifestyle, and is considered a transitional form between land and sea mammals.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Pezosiren (revision 1326368016), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q1439829.

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