Pontolis

Pontolis is an extinct genus of large walrus. It contained three species, P. magnus, P. barroni, and P. kohnoi. Like all pinnipeds, Pontolis was a heavily built amphibious carnivore. Pontolis lived along the Pacific coast of North America along what is now the western coasts of California and Oregon between 11.608 and 5.332 million years ago, during the Miocene and Pliocene.

Pontolis

Jonathan Chen · 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
Sits inside
OdobenidaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Odobenidae
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pinnipedia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pinnipedia

Time the record covers

At most 9.1 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.63 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 11 of 11 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 11 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.8–9.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.4–9.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.1–8.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.8–8.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.4–8.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.1–7.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.1–6.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.8–6.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.4–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.8–5.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.8–4.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1–3.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.8–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12.1 Mya2.1 Mya

11 occurrences of Pontolis on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

11 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

5 formations

Monterey — 33.56°N, 117.71°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.33°WMonterey — 33.78°N, 118.39°WEmpire — 43.39°N, 124.18°WEmpire — 42.83°N, 124.56°WFernando — 34.40°N, 118.45°WWilson Grove — 38.34°N, 122.84°WCapistrano — 33.69°N, 117.71°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pontolis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Pontolis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pontolis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

125 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Pontolis, 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

7 references

Each of the 11 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. 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 Pontolis

Credit
Jonathan Chen
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

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itOdobenidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. True 1905