Odobenus

The walrus is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobenidae and genus Odobenus. This species is subdivided into two subspecies: the Atlantic walrus, which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific walrus, which lives in the Pacific Ocean.

Odobenus

Nixette · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
walrusPBDB
Sits inside
OdobeniniPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Odobenidae
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pinnipedia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pinnipedia

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 199 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 199 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 111 of 199 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 83 of 199 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 150 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

199 occurrences of Odobenus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

199 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

17 formations

Ijmuiden Ground — 52.67°N, 2.83°EIjmuiden Ground — 53.17°N, 3.33°EIjmuiden Ground — 52.44°N, 3.05°EShimonopporo — 43.15°N, 141.51°EShimonopporo — 42.81°N, 141.54°EAcredale — 36.79°N, 76.17°WSouth Bight II — 51.54°N, 178.98°EWestkapelle Ground — 51.62°N, 3.88°ESilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WKempsville — 36.79°N, 76.17°WMandano — 35.34°N, 140.15°EWando — 32.82°N, 79.91°WTen Mile Hill — 32.97°N, 80.17°WShiranuka — 42.85°N, 143.87°EGubik — 70.85°N, 158.81°WTokyo — 35.72°N, 139.73°EPamlico — 36.06°N, 75.71°WDashwood Drift — 49.35°N, 124.45°WKoopnap — 51.49°N, 56.98°WKiyokawa — 35.41°N, 140.05°E

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The named rock units Odobenus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 176 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Odobenus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Odobenus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

450 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 194 sites for Odobenus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

91 references

Each of the 199 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 79 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Odobenus

Credit
Nixette
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOdobenini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brisson 1762