Partial skeleton of sirenian

The sirenian Halitherium schirinzi was found in a quarry south of Paris by Frédéric Voisin and Pascal Dussurget, two boys aged 12 and 14 years. The Sirenia are herbivorous mammals that had their wider spread between the Eocene and Oligocene; today only a few species survive, at the mouth of the Amazon River, in the tropical areas of the Indian Ocean and along the Atlantic coast of Senegal. Females often take an upright position, with head and trunk out of the water, clenching their puppies to the chest while suckling them (Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation Collection).