Puijila - a transitional fossil in the evolution of seals
Reconstruction of Puijila . (Image credit: A. Tirabasso, Canadian Museum of Nature)
Puijila darwini is a 20 million year old fossil that was discovered in 2007 in the Haughton crater (Devon Island, Nunavut). Excavations, carried out with the support of Nunavut and especially the community of Grise Fiord, took place over three field seasons and resulted in the recovery of most of the skeleton. This anatomical “missing link" provides evidence for understanding how the ancestors of seals, sea lions and walruses (Pinnipeds) moved from land to sea.
The Haughton Crater fossil locality also yielded the rhinoceros, Epiaceratherium itjilik.
REFERENCES
Cullen, T.M., D. Fraser, N. Rybczynski, and C. Schroder-Adams, 2014. Early evolution of sexual dimorphism and polygyny in Pinnipedia. Evolution 68(5):1469-1484. DOI: 10.1111/evo.12360
Esteban, J.M., A. Martín‐Serra, A. Pérez-Ramos, N. Rybczynski, F.J. Pastor, and B. Figueirido. 2023. Investigating the land-to-sea transition in carnivorans from the evolution of sacrum morphology in pinnipeds. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 1-22. DOI:10.1007/s10914-023-09650-y
Fish, F.E., N. Rybczynski, G.V. Lauder, C.M. Duff. 2021. The Role of the Tail or Lack Thereof in the Evolution of Tetrapod Aquatic Propulsion. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 61(2): 398–413. DOI: 10.1093/icb/icab021.
Paterson, R.S. (M.Sc. Student), N. Rybczynski, N. Kohno, H.C. Maddin. 2020. A Total Evidence Phylogenetic Analysis of Pinniped Phylogeny and the Possibility of Parallel Evolution within a Monophyletic Framework. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 7: 457. 16pp. DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00457.
Rybczynski, N., M.R. Dawson and R.H. Tedford. 2009. A semi-aquatic Arctic mammalian carnivore from the Miocene Epoch and origin of Pinnipedia. Nature. 458: 1021-1024
