The mo was a cryptid reported from northern Burma and China's Yunnan Province. Described in Treatise on the Nanman, Southwestern Barbarians, a volume of the Book of the Later Han, it resembled a bear, but was the size of a donkey and had pale fur. It was a powerful animal which could knock things down by reaching up with its forelimbs, but it was also hunted for its pelt.[1]
David C. Xu suggests that it could have been a chalicothere (~46–1 MYA), a clade of ungulates which may have resembled a combination of bear and horse, and which are believed to have used their forelimbs for grabbing branches. The most recent recorded chalicothere genus, Nestoritherium (~2–0.7 MYA), is known from Pleistocene formations in Burma. Alternatively, Xu also suggests it could have been a descendant of the Eomoropidae family (~55–43 MYA), which were related to chalicotheres, but were smaller. Fossils of some species have been discovered in Yunnan and in northern Burma.[1]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Xu, David C. (2018) Mystery Creatures of China: The Complete Cryptozoological Guide, Coachwhip Publications, ISBN 978-1616464301