A large tapir-like, shortlegged
mammal weighing about 500 kilograms, Coryphodon was about one
metre at shoulder height and 2.3 metres long. Although it had a large
skull with canine tusks like those of a hippopotamus, its brain at 90
grams was very small - one of the smallest brain/boddy weight ratios
know among mammals.
A brownsing animal, Coryphodon probably had semi-aquatic habits
like today's hippo, feeding on roots, tubers and aquatic plants.
Widespread in North America between 59 andd 51 million years ago, this
large mammal ranged from Ellesmere Island in the north to Mississippi,
Texas and New Mexico in the south. Both plant and vertebrate fossils
from Ellesmere Island, Canada's most northerly island, indicate that
Coryphodon lived there in a warm temperate climate along with
small alligators, soft-shelled turtles and horse-like mammals.
