New Zealand researcher finds missing link in seal evolution

A New Zealand paleontologist has identified the oldest known fur seal fossil, bridging a 5- million-year gap in fur seal and sea lion evolution, the University of Otago said on Thursday

Otago researcher Robert Boessenecker and colleague Morgan Churchill, from the University of Wyoming, had named this new genus and species of fur seal Eotaria crypta. The genus name Eotaria means "dawn sea lion."

The species was tiny, with adults being only slightly larger than a sea otter, Boessenecker said in a statement.

The partial jaw, with several well-preserved teeth, was found in the 1980s in a rock formation dating from 15 million to 17 million years ago in the U.S. state of California, but had been misidentified as belonging to a walrus species.

He saw the fossil in California's John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center, and instantly realized it was a tiny, early fur seal.

"This was very exciting as fur seals and sea lions - the family otariidae - have a limited fossil record that, up until now, extended back to about 10 million to 12 million years ago," Boessenecker said.

"Yet we know that their fossil record must go back to around 16 million to 17 million years ago or so, because walruses - the closest modern relative of the otariids - have a record reaching back that far," he said.

"The mystery remains of why there has only been one of these fur seals ever found given that there have been extensive fossil excavations of similarly aged rocks in California." Endi