HYRACOIDEA, how do I hate thee..

["Darren Naish" <dwn194@soton.ac.uk>]

Darren Naish (hey, that's me), said..

> the appealing notion of a hyrax as a 'hamster-sized elephant' must be tossed
> aside.

Ron Orenstein pointed out that..

> No one has ever seriously proposed this 

It was lifted from a semi-serious post by a member of this list and was not
intended as reflection of a serious published proposal. Sorry for any confusion.

As for the notion of tethytheres as primitively aquatic/amphibious, Ron says
that Fischer now argues that this may be valid. The info provided by Ron was new
to me - thanks for that - but note that Fischer does not state *as a fact* that
the things were water-associated. In fact, he says..

> "It cannot be ruled out that the last common ancestor of Tethytheria was > >
> semi-aquatic." 

Still something open to interpretation. More early elephant fossils please.

"Help me, help me, I'm gonna fa--lll--ll"
She says it all with her mouth closed (and with the body of a stunt double)

"Clever girl"

DARREN NAISH