Gomphotaria
{{Short description|Extinct genus of carnivores}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| fossil_range = Late Miocene, {{fossilrange|7.2|5.3}}
| image = Gomphotaria pugnax life restoration.jpg
| image_caption = Restoration of Gomphotaria pugnax
| taxon = Gomphotaria
| authority = Barnes & Rashke, 1991
| type_species = †Gomphotaria pugnax
| type_species_authority = Barnes & Rashke, 1991Barnes, L. G. and R. E. Raschke. 1991. Gomphotaria pugnax, a new genus and species of Late Miocene Dusignathine Otariid Pinniped (Mammalia: Carnivora) from California. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Contributions in Science 426:1-16.
}}
File:Gomphotaria_pugnax.jpg in foreground]]
Gomphotaria is a genus of very large shellfish-eating dusignathine walrus found along the coast of what is now California, during the late Miocene.
Description
It was a huge-sized pinniped with skull length of around {{cvt|47|cm}}, surpassed only by Pontolis, which had a skull of {{cvt|60|cm}} long.
{{cite book
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mHw6DwAAQBAJ&dq=Gomphotaria+skull+47+cm&pg=PA110
| title = The Rise of Marine Mammals: 50 Million Years of Evolution
| publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press
| date = 2017
| access-date = 2022-08-21
| page = 110
| author = Annalisa Berta
| isbn = 978-1-4214-2325-8
}} Gomphotaria had comparatively small eyes, increased upper and lower canines and four tusks, with one pair in the lower and upper jaws.{{clarify|reason=if the tusks are not the canines as they are in living walruses, which teeth are they?|date=November 2022}} According to wear on the tusks, G. pugnax hammered shellfish open, rather than simply sucking them out of their shells as do modern walruses. In terms of the postcranial skeleton, Gomphotaria and other dusignathine walruses were built more like sea lions than modern walrus. Gomphotaria is a prime example of the extreme diversity that walruses once exhibited.
References
{{Commons}}
{{Wikispecies}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Pan-Pinnipedia|O.}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q5581272}}
Category:Monotypic prehistoric carnivoran genera
Category:Prehistoric pinnipeds of North America
Category:Fossil taxa described in 1991
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