- A 13-year-old fossil fanatic discovered a walrus cranium in a boulder in northern California in 2011.
- Eleven years later, a paleontologist has named the previously unknown, now extinct species after him.
- The toothless walrus doubtless lived close to temperate bays in California about 5 million years in the past.
In 2011, a 13-year-old fossil hunter on a seashore close to bluffs in Santa Cruz, California, occurred throughout the discover of a lifetime: the whole cranium of an unknown, 5-million-year-old walrus species, encased in a large boulder.
His discovery has now led to the identification of a new, historic species of walrus, which scientists named after the 13-year-old in his honor in a current paper printed within the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Discovering fossils
An fanatic because the age of 9, Forrest Sheperd would go searching two to a few instances per week, discovering shells, shark enamel, and whale bones.
“I used to be simply completely on hearth and ecstatic about discovering fossils,” he informed Enterprise Insider.
“I had been fossil searching sufficient to know what fossilized bone seems to be like,” he stated.
So when he got here throughout the boulder, from the form, he acknowledged it was doubtless a cranium, and he, with the assistance of a pal, hauled the 70-pound rock again to his dad and mom’ automotive.
Sheperd, who’s at present in medical college, credit the paleontologist on the Santa Cruz Museum of Pure Historical past with figuring out a lot of his fossil finds and connecting him with marine mammal fossil knowledgeable Robert Boessenecker.
Eleven years after Sheperd discovered it, Boessenecker named the newly-identified walrus species Valenictus sheperdi, after Sheperd’s final identify.
“This fossil was discovered by a 13-year-old child,” Boessenecker informed Enterprise Insider. “I believe that is actually outstanding.”
Paradoxically, Boessenecker used to comb the identical seashore on the lookout for fossils. “I have been going there since I used to be 15, so Forrest bought luckier than I did,” he stated.
Toothless not tuskless
Between graduate college and incomes his Ph.D., Boessenecker took over a decade to free the cranium, however as he lastly began to take away the exhausting sandstone surrounding it, he realized there have been no sockets in its jaw for enamel, only a place for its higher tusks.
The dearth of enamel was a transparent signal that the cranium did not belong to fashionable walruses, since fashionable species have enamel, which they use to speak by clacking collectively however to not eat with.
Boessenecker decided that the cranium belonged to the genus Valenictus — the closest extinct relative to residing walruses.
However as a result of the brand new cranium was older and bigger than different Valenictus species and had some physiological variations, Boessenecker suspected it was an unknown species.
He promised to call it after Sheperd.
“That is clearly such an enormous accomplishment for any fossil collector to have the ability to not simply discover a cool fossil, however to have the ability to discover a fossil that basically contributes to our understanding in an enormous new method,” Sheperd stated.
The walruses of California
Tens of millions of years in the past, over a dozen walrus species roamed the planet. At present, solely two subspecies are left, “which tells us one thing bizarre has occurred with walruses prior to now couple million years,” Boessenecker stated.
Historical walruses used to stay in California, which doubtless had an identical local weather 5 million years in the past because it does now, Boessenecker stated. That is wildly completely different from the frigid Arctic temperatures as we speak’s walruses choose.
Furthermore, between 2 million and seven million years in the past one thing occurred to the West Coast that induced numerous species to vanish.
“There’s all types of weirdos that you just discover in rocks” in California from that point, Boessenecker stated. Along with walruses, there have been odd-looking marine mammals, uncommon extinct birds, and unusual fish.
“We had large bony-toothed birds flying round up till about 2 million years in the past or so,” he stated. Quite a lot of Valenictus’ weird companions began disappearing across the similar time.
“So what occurred on the West Coast?” Boessenecker posed. “Why did now we have this unimaginable species or faunal turnover?”
Scientists assume it has to do with a dramatic change within the geography of the California shoreline that occurred round 3 or 4 million years in the past, he stated.
Earlier than the change, the Los Angeles Basin and southern San Joaquin Valley have been shallow marine bays that made good foraging grounds for walruses and different marine mammals.
Nonetheless, modifications in local weather and the emergence of the Sierra Mountains each contributed to the lack of these marine bays and the walruses’ meals provide, Boessenecker stated.
“I prefer to deal with these types of younger fossils as a result of it provides us a little bit little bit of perspective on what we nonetheless have on the California shoreline,” Boessenecker stated. “It is an unimaginable ecosystem, and it is modified fairly a bit prior to now few million years.”
