Pontolis
Extinct genus of carnivores
Pontolis is an extinct genus of large walrus. It contained three species, P. magnus, P. barroni, and P. kohnoi. Like all pinnipeds, Pontolis was a heavily built amphibious carnivore. Pontolis lived along the Pacific coast of North America along what is now the western coasts of California and Oregon between 11.608 and 5.332 million years ago, during the Miocene and Pliocene.
01Description
The skull of Pontolis is 60 cm (24 in) long, surpassing skulls of any other prehistoric pinnipeds and twice as big as the skulls of modern male walruses. This giant species was much larger than modern walrus, though like many other extinct walrus species, its upper canines did not develop into long tusks like those of the modern walrus. Pontolis reached more than 4 m (13 ft) in body length, rivaling the extant southern elephant seal as the largest pinniped and member of the order Carnivora of all time. Weight estimates for Pontolis range between 2,000 to 4,000 kg (4,400 to 8,800 lb).
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Pontolis”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Pontolis barroni LACM.jpg by Jonathan Chen, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Pontolis magnus.jpg by Robert Boessenecker, CC0
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