4.4" Fossil Oreodont (Leptauchenia) Skull - South Dakota

Fossil Oreodont (Leptauchenia) Skull - South Dakota #249246

This is a nicely prepared skull of Leptauchenia decora, an oreodont from the oligocene-aged White River Formation of Pennington County, South Dakota. The skull is compressed but remained mostly intact.

Comes with an acrylic display stand to assist with presentation.

The teeth are all natural, though there is some fragmentation and the upper incisors and right canines are either missing or incomplete. Restoration can be found along the angles of both sides of the mandible, and the nasal bone is completely restored. The restoration makes up approximately 15% of this specimen.

Because the eyes and nostrils were placed high on the head, it was long assumed that Leptauchenia was an aquatic or semi-aquatic animal. However, because their fossils have never been found in floodplain deposits or river channels but are found abundantly abundance in fossil sand dunes, paleontologist Donald Prothero suggests that they were desert-dwelling animals. According to Prothero's interpretation, the high-placed eyes and nostrils served to filter out sand while burrowing, or while digging themselves free of sand dunes.