I like them a lot, its just their clade is relatively small compared to other orders, not to mention their morphological diversity is a little lacking, so its hard to make fan favorites for paleo-nerds besides Desmostylus itself.

Love them tho, I wish they'd get some love. Even if it was something small like inclusion in a JW park building game

Never knew about these guys honestly-

Oh shoot I completely forgot these things existed

There lots of other interesting extinct mammal clades like this, but most people here talk more and care more about Mesozoic and Paleozoic stuff than the Cenozoic.

Before I had access to the Internet, I did not know about such animals at all. For some reason, the authors of ecyclopedias do not write about them.

What's even weirder is that it's only in North America that no one knows about them, in Japan they're famous. You can get Desmostylian toys and play on Desmostylian themed playgrounds there.

Desmostylians are found along the pacific rim, and a lot of material is found in Japan itself, with the type genus Desmostylus itself having a Japanese species named. Japan has a much smaller roster of animals found in their border, so the most notable species found there like these desmostylians would be normal to popularize. I'm sure the Triceratops wouldn't be as popular in the US if it was found somewhere like Brazil instead, so in a way Japanese love for the species is in a way a sort of patriotism for their nation.

They were in Russia too but idk the popularity of it there. The US has so much stuff, I can see why these kinda slip through the cracks. Smilodon, Titanis, Megalodon, and other cenozoic wonders kinda take the popularity.