Guess what the Bureau of Land Management found in Eastern Oregon? A pair of fossilized beaver teeth from the rattlesnake nation that are at least 7 million years old! That beats the first beaver record in the US by a couple million years, and the earliest record we have of Castor Canadensis separating from Castor Fiber.
The tooth-worthy occasion has made all the media stops, causing frantic editors to scurry through stock footage for photos of actual beaver and unknowingly pull up nutria. Like here, or here. (I of course set them straight and pointed them to pictures of ACTUAL BEAVERS but a leopard doesn’t often change its spots and I don’t know if they’ll correct them.) Still it’s an exciting time in beaver history! And you can bet it will be the topic of conversation at the university watercooler for a while.
Beaver teeth were used by natives for a host of things because they were so durable: arrows, knives, axes and dice to name a few! Hardly any self respecting native woman on the pacific northwest would turn down a game of beaver teeth. So its not surprising that they would be around and in use for a few generations….or 7 million years.
As of this morning I have received this article from 5 beaver friendly sources and three strangers. Let’s just see how the day unfolds, shall we?
In the mean time beaver friend Brock Dolman is presenting today at the estuary conference on the key relationship between beavers and Coho. He passed along this slide which he will include in his talk, I thought you’d appreciate seeing it.
For myself, I cannot help but think that this grand fossil discovery is a Karmic birthday present. Maybe ancient beavers didn’t want me to feel old by comparison?
