Gomphotaria Temporal range: Late
Miocene,
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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.
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.