Biology:Gomphotaria
Gomphotaria | |
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Restoration of Gomphotaria pugnax | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Clade: | Pinnipedia |
Family: | Odobenidae |
Genus: | †Gomphotaria Barnes & Rashke, 1991 |
Type species | |
†Gomphotaria pugnax Barnes & Rashke, 1991[1]
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Gomphotaria is a genus of very large shellfish-eating dusignathine walrus[1] found along the coast of what is now California , during the late Miocene.
Description
It was a huge-sized pinniped with skull length of around 47 cm (19 in), surpassed only by Pontolis, which had a skull of 60 cm (24 in) long.[2] Gomphotaria had comparatively small eyes, increased upper and lower canines and four tusks, with one pair in the lower and upper jaws.[clarification needed] According to wear on the tusks, G. pugnax hammered shellfish open, rather than simply sucking them out of their shells as do modern walruses.[2] In terms of the postcranial skeleton, Gomphotaria and other dusignathine walruses were built more like sea lions than modern walrus. Gomphotaria is a prime example of the extreme diversity that walruses once exhibited.
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gomphotaria. |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Barnes, L. G. and R. E. Raschke. 1991. Gomphotaria pugnax, a new genus and species of Late Miocene Dusignathine Otariid Pinniped (Mammalia: Carnivora) from California. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Contributions in Science 426:1-16.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Annalisa Berta (2017). The Rise of Marine Mammals: 50 Million Years of Evolution. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 110. https://books.google.com/books?id=mHw6DwAAQBAJ&dq=Gomphotaria+skull+47+cm&pg=PA110. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
Wikidata ☰ Q5581272 entry
![]() | Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomphotaria.
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