Kolponomos newportensis

Taxobox
name = "Kolponomos newportensis"
fossil_range = Miocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Carnivora
subordo = Caniformia
superfamilia = Ursoidea
familia = Ursidae
familia_authority = G. Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
genus = "Kolponomos"
genus_authority = Stirton 1960
species = "K. newportensis"
binomial = "Kolponomos newportensis"
binomial_authority = (Tedford et al., 1994) [cite journal|author = R. H. Tedford, L. G. Barnes, and C. E. Ray|year = 1994|title = The early Miocene littoral ursoid carnivoran Kolponomos: Systematics and mode of life|journal = Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History 29:11-32]

"Kolponomos newportensis" is an extinct species of marine bear which existed from the Hemingfordian age to the Aquitanian age of the Miocene epoch, about 20 million years ago. It was described in 1994 by R. Tedford, L. Barnes and Clayton E. Ray. It is represented by single specimen: a nearly complete skull, jaw and post-cranial bones found in a concretion of sediment. The concretion was discovered in two pieces by renowned fossil collector Douglas Emlong near Newport, Oregon, the first in 1969 and the second, eight years later, in 1977. Because the concretion had been hardened so much by tectonic stress, the paleontological laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution considered them "the most difficult materials ever encountered by our laboratory.," [cite journal|author = C. E. Ray|year = 1976|title = Fossil marine mammals of Oregon|journal = Systematic Zoology 25(4)|doi = 10.2307/2412515|volume = 25|pages = 420] and a combination of techniques proved essential to its extraction and preparation, which lasted two decades. Discovery of "K. newportensis" disproved the earlier theory that the genus was related to ancestors of raccoons, and showed instead that it is instead an early but unusual bear relative.

References

External links

* [http://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?action=checkTaxonInfo&taxon_no=71918&is_real_user=1 "Kolponomos newportensis" at The Paleobiology Database]