| Kolponomos newportensis Temporal range: Miocene |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Caniformia |
| Superfamily: | Ursoidea |
| Family: | Ursidae |
| Subfamily: | Amphicynodontinae |
| Genus: | Kolponomos Stirton 1960 |
| Species: | K. newportensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Kolponomos newportensis (Tedford et al., 1994)[1] |
|
Kolponomos newportensis is an extinct species of marine bear which existed from the Hemingfordian age to the Aquitanian age of the Miocene epoch, about 20 million years ago. It was described in 1994 by R. Tedford, L. Barnes and Clayton E. Ray. It is represented by single specimen: a nearly complete skull, jaw and post-cranial bones found in a concretion of sediment. The concretion was discovered in two pieces by fossil collector Douglas Emlong near Newport, Oregon, the first in 1969 and the second, eight years later, in 1977. Because the concretion had been hardened so much by tectonic stress, the paleontological laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution considered them "the most difficult materials ever encountered by our laboratory.,"[2] and a combination of techniques proved essential to its extraction and preparation, which lasted two decades. Discovery of K. newportensis disproved the earlier theory that the genus was related to ancestors of raccoons, and showed instead that it is instead an early but unusual bear relative.