Palaeocastor
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Palaeocastor ('prehistoric beaver') is an extinct genus of beaver that lived in the North American Badlands during the late Oligocene period. It generically resembles a modern day beaver, save for a large horn-like protuberance at the top of the skull.
[edit] Habitat
Sources dictate that this creature made corkscrew-shaped burrows and tunnels. Like many early castorids, Palaeocastor was predominantly a burrowing animal instead of an aquatic animal. Fossil evidence suggests that they may have lived in family groups like modern beavers and employed a k reproductive strategy instead of the normal r-strategy of most rodents.
Their fossilized burrows, known as Daemonelix or devil's corkscrew, were first noted by Dr. E.H. Barbour of the University of Nebraska around Harrison, Nebraska, in 1891.[1] They baffled scientists until a fossil beaver was discovered in one of them. Previously, they were believed to be the fossil roots of a plant.
They excavated their burrows with their incisors, not their claws.[2]
[edit] Cultural Reference
This particular genus of beaver made an appearance in the film Ice Age: The Meltdown.
