Happy Darwin Day: Eotaria Crypta Fossil Ends 5-Million-Year 'Ghost Lineage'
Thursday, February 12, 2015 - 09:40
in Paleontology & Archaeology
A fossil discovery has provided a missing link that helps to resolve a more than 5-million-year gap in fur seal and sea lion evolutionary history.This new genus and species of fur seal has been called Eotaria crypta. Eotaria means 'dawn sea lion'. The species was tiny, with adults being only slightly larger than a sea otter and around the size of a juvenile New Zealand fur seal, according to University of Otago graduate student Robert Boessenecker, who found the fossil while looking through the John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center. read more