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Gomphotaria

Gomphotaria
Temporal range: Late Miocene, 7.2–5.3 Ma
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Restoration of Gomphotaria pugnax
Scientific classification Edit this 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]
Restoration of foraging Gomphotaria pugnax with Dusignathus in foreground

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gomphotaria.
Wikispecies has information related to Gomphotaria.
  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Annalisa Berta (2017). The Rise of Marine Mammals: 50 Million Years of Evolution. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-4214-2325-8. Retrieved 2022-08-21.


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