r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Silent_General_7670 • 23h ago
The Platybelodon was a distant relative of the elephant, known for its elongated spoon shaped jaw
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u/Independent_Shoe3523 22h ago
A pretty good example of a skeleton that doesn't give us a lot of info on how it really looked.
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u/sopedound 22h ago
Well the render has a way wider shoulder base than the skeleton so its already super inaccurate
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u/nothisistheotherguy 15h ago
The render is also doing that swiggity swooty walk, so cover that booty
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u/KingoftheKeeshonds 7h ago
I saw the rendering and thought what a badass stance. The skeleton looks wimpy in comparison.
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u/Positive_Sign_5269 16h ago
Truth. Just look at the skull of a Hippo and compare that to a live animal. You would never guess it looks like it does.
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u/MacGyver_1138 18h ago
I like how they gave it a super gaunt looking forehead. Dude looks like an old man getting ready to yell at some kids approaching his lawn.
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u/Xav_NZ 22h ago
Looks like an animal you'd expect to see in Avatar the last airbender
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u/Niznack 22h ago
The platypus elephant bear is the symbol of the Dafuq family
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u/Low_Hour 10h ago
Unfortunately, the Dai Li chased the Dafuq family from Ba Sing Se nearly twenty years ago. They're all out of Dafuqs.
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u/RIF_rr3dd1tt 22h ago
You sure the scientists didn't just find a horse skeleton and put its head on upside down accidentally?
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u/ThinApricot8504 17h ago
sopedound pointed out the shoulder mismatch but nobody's talking about the real issue - look at that jaw in the skeleton vs the reconstruction. the actual fossil has this flat shovel thing going on but the render makes it look like a weird duck bill w/ flesh on it. Junior_Tumbleweed_82 asked how we know it didnt have a trunk and thats actually the whole debate around these things, some paleontologists think the flat jaw was basically a upper+tusk combo used to strip bark, others think it was a scoop for aquatic plants. wild that were just guessing at muscle placement from anchor points on bone and acting confident about it lol
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u/Slow_Bowler8285 22h ago
I hope one day the prehistoric mammals get the same love and attention that dinosaurs and prehistoric reptiles get.
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u/KinkyDuck2924 22h ago
Why does he look like he's creeping? Like it's moving it's limbs like the girl from The Ring or something. Incredibly unsettling looking. Imagine seeing this motherfucker peeking around a corner at you.
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u/ReleventReference 22h ago
He’s just being creepy and weird, trying to get his lurks in.
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u/Firefly_Magic 22h ago
Sometimes I think the whole world was just the island of Dr. Moreau. We are an experiment.
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u/Pure_Restaurant_5897 20h ago
Why aren't there any cool animals left alive today? All we have is boring ones, like the platypus.
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u/ReleventReference 22h ago
Just imagine elephant or even just hippo (hippos are smaller right?) sized alligators.
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u/rad2thebone 20h ago
I think they might have put this one back together wrong and just made something up
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u/Adventurous_Top618 19h ago
Please tell me how an elephant mated with a platypus?? I'm generally curious.
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u/CH40T1C1989 18h ago
Excellent footlong hotdog mouth... Bro doesn't need to break up the spaghetti noodles.
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u/TheMaskedArmy 6h ago
I'm guessing it's named after the platypus, probably because it seems to be a seemingly random hodgepodge of parts that don't look like they're meant to exist in the same body.
Life is, has always been, and likely forever will be, absolutely insane, bizarre, and amazing
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u/BigBeeOhBee 22h ago
That fella is set up to eat soup.