A semi-aquatic Arctic mammalian carnivore from the Miocene epoch and origin of Pinnipedia. 2009. N. Rybczynski, et al., Nature 458: 1021-1024.
The 24 to 20 million-year-old fossil skeleton of
Puijila darwini was found in the summer of 2007 during a fieldwork expedition on Devon Island, Nunavut, in a meteor impact crater. It resembled an otter, but a skull that is more closely related to seals. A "walking seal",
Puijila had legs like a terrestrial mammal, but the feet were webbed and adapted for swimming. This surprisingly complete skeleton (about 65%) is the most primitive pinniped skeleton found so far.
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Puijila is the first fossil evidence that early pinnipeds lived in the Arctic," explains Rybczynski. "This discovery supports the hypothesis that the Arctic may have been a geographic centre in pinniped evolution."
Puijila darwin will be on display at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa from April 28 to May 10, 2009. A model of the skeleton will be included in Extreme Mammals, an exhibition opening May 16, 2009 at the American Natural History Museum in New York, co-sponsered by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
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