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Wednesday, May 13. 2009
Scientists unearth ancient walking seal on Devon Island
"Whatdid seals look like before they had flippers? This is what we think
they would have looked like," said Natalia Rybczynski, a vertebrate
paleontologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature, in an interview this
week.
In the summer of 2007, a team of scientists working on
Devon Island uncovered the skeleton of an animal called puijila, a
close relative of today's seals.
Puijila provides the first
evidence that these early members of the seal family lived in the High
Arctic, said Rybczynski, who led the scientific team to Devon Island
and co-authored a paper on puijila in the April 23 journal Nature.
Puijila'sfossil remains also suggest that the Arctic may have been a centre of
evolution for these early marine mammals, she said.
Puijila's
full species name is puijila darwini.Puijila, which means a "young sea
mammal" in Inuktitut, is usually used in reference to a seal pup. The
Government of Nunavut's Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit helped
select this name to recognize the people of Nunavut, Rybczynski
says.Puijila's species name, darwini, honours the British scientist
Charles Darwin.
Puijila also gives an idea of what seals looked
like before they became fully flippered, Rybczynski said. Puijila is
not directly related to any modern seal, but a common ancestor probably
gave rise to puijila and the flippered seals and walrus of today,
Rybczynski said.
The next step is to see where puijila fits in
the family tree and determine how puijila may have made the transition
from land to sea.
If you're curious to learn more about puijila,
you can see the creature for yourself at the Canadian Museum of Nature
in Ottawa from April 28 to May 10.
Adventure Canada will be visiting Devon Island in 2009, please select one of the following itineraries for more information.
High Arctic Adventure: August 9 - 21
Into The Northwest Passage: August 21-September 1
Out Of The Northwest Passage: September 1-16
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