REGION
Saturday, July 13, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
Jay Rodighiero hired as
next Freewater principal
By ALEX CASTLE
East Oregonian
National Park Service Photo, File
Mesonychid teeth and jaw discovered within the Clarno Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National
Monument.
Ancient ‘hyena-pig’
discovered to have
once roamed Oregon
By ERIN ROSS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
JOHN DAY — Oregon’s
weirdest predator, the first of
its kind in the state, was found
in a museum drawer. A piece
of it, anyway.
Hyena-pig. Murder-cow.
With no modern analog, sci-
entists have resorted to com-
binations of common animals
to describe it. Dug up decades
ago in the Hancock Mam-
mal Quarry near John Day,
the bone from this prehistoric
creature languished, misiden-
tified in museum storage,
until Selina Robson pulled it
from its drawer.
Robson wasn’t looking for
a murder-cow when she found
the specimen. It was a fossil-
ized jaw, slightly smooshed,
and it was huge: about the
length of her forearm. It was
labeled “Hemipsaladon,” a
type of creodont, which were
large, bear-like predators that
roamed Oregon 40 million
years ago.
But Robson, at the time
an undergrad student at the
University of Oregon, had
spent a lot of time looking at
Hemipsaladon specimens,
trying to identify one for a
class assignment.
“I looked at it and said,
‘This doesn’t look right. This
doesn’t look right at all,’”
Robson said. She set it near
her spot in the lab, mentally
labeling it as “Weird Thing
Found In A Closet” and left it
there for a few months.
Robson couldn’t get the
massive jaw out of her mind,
so she brought it to her
instructors, Samantha Hop-
kins and Nick Famoso, and
asked if she could take a crack
at identifying it properly.
She took the jaw to the
Oregon Imaging Center
next to her university and
took a CT scan of the teeth.
Teeth, Robson explained, are
great for identifying species
because they’re so specific to
diet.
Robson took pictures of
the specimen to conferences,
compared it to other fossils
and eventually submitted a
paper on the find. Science can
be a slow process, so by the
time the paper was published
in June, Robson had started a
Ph.D. program at the Univer-
sity of Calgary in Canada.
The results were in: The
M I LTON-FR EEWA-
TER — The Milton-Free-
water Unified School Dis-
trict voted unanimously
to hire McLoughlin High
School Vice Principal Jay
Rodighiero as the Freewa-
ter School principal at Mon-
day’s board meeting.
Rodighiero has served as
the high school vice princi-
pal since he came to the dis-
trict in 2000.
“He knows the district,
he knows the building, the
families and the students,”
recently hired superin-
tendent Aaron Duff said.
“He really relates with the
students.”
After serving as a fourth-
and fifth-grade school in
2018-19 while Ferndale Ele-
mentary School underwent
renovations, Duff said the
Freewater School will oper-
ate as an alternative school
for a wide
range
of
students
from pre-
school to
f ifth-year
high school
seniors.
Rodighiero
“ It ’s
a unique
building,” Duff said. “And
(Rodighiero) is familiar
with alternative schools.”
It’s that experience both
within the district and with
the uniqueness of the school
that made Duff and the
MFUSD board confident in
not just hiring Rodighiero
as principal, but also as the
district’s director of special
programs.
In total, Rodighiero will
supervise the preschool,
alternative education pro-
grams and an elementary
behavioral classroom in his
new positions.
With Ferndale Elemen-
tary School open again in
the fall, Duff said that shift-
ing the alternative schooling
programs to Freewater will
open up rooms at McLough-
lin High School and allow
the district to make better
use of its space in general.
However, Rodighiero’s
promotion leaves a void for
the high school vice princi-
pal position he’s held for the
last 19 years. The position
has now opened and the dis-
trict is accepting applicants,
according to Duff.
“We’re looking for
another solid administra-
tor,” Duff said. “We’re
looking
for
someone
that wants to be a part of
the community.”
Weston man gets new
attorney in manslaughter case
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
National Park Service Graphic
The John Day mesonychid was initially misidentified as this
creature, Hemipsaladon grandis, another large predator that
would have shared a range with the mesonychid.
jaw was definitely not a
bear-like
Hemipsaladon;
it best matched a creature
called Harpagolestes uinten-
sis, a type of animal called a
mesonychid. It was the first
one ever found in the state. In
fact, it was the first one ever
found in the Northwest.
Mesonychid are an extinct
branch of ungulates. Ungu-
lates are still around today.
We’ve all seen them. Cows,
pigs, camels, giraffes, ele-
phants, deer, sheep and all
other hoofed animals are con-
sidered ungulates.
Mesonychid, though, are
arguably the weirdest ungu-
lates to ever hoof it around
North America.
“It kind of looked a little
piggy?” said Famoso, who
is now the chief of paleon-
tology and museum curator
at the John Day Fossil Beds
National Monument, where
the bizarre jaw was found. “It
has a pig-like skull and jaw, it
had hooves. But it was defi-
nitely out there eating meat
and bone.”
Famoso searched for a
modern analog. “Imagine a
hyena, crossed with a pig.
And that’s kind of what this
animal would have looked
like.”
It would have had massive
jaws for crunching bones, and
big, stocky muscled shoulders
like a hyena. It also would
have been about the size of
a bear. As Robson put it,
“terrifying.”
It’s a bit weird to think of
a meat-eating hoofed animal,
though maybe it shouldn’t be.
Modern pigs are voracious
omnivores, willing to eat any-
thing in front of them, whether
it’s plant or animal. Hippos,
though strict vegetarians, are
deadly and aggressive.
Famoso said that this spec-
imen confirms that the area
around modern-day John Day
was once capable of support-
ing at least two large preda-
tors, both the mesonychid and
Hemipsaladon.
Until now, only one
mesonychid had been found
on the West Coast, a lone
specimen in Southern Cali-
fornia. The rest were found
around the Great Plains, New
Mexico and in Asia.
That means that this John
Day mesonychid fills an
important gap, said Samantha
Hopkins, a paleontologist at
the University of Oregon. The
only way these species would
have traveled from Asia to
the plains or New Mexico is
through a Northwest route.
Now, finally, there’s a spec-
imen from the middle, con-
necting the dots.
“It’s always nice when
you say, ‘This animal ought
to have been here,’ and then
when you look for it, it actu-
ally is,” Hopkins said.
The John Day mesony-
chid would have shared its
range with large herbivores
like Protitanops, a relative of
modern rhinos.
In the 1950s, when this
specimen was most likely
excavated, it would have been
nearly impossible to iden-
tify. Only modern technology
allowed Robson to look past
the jaw’s crushed exterior to
the teeth beneath that helped
her identify the specimen.
And there are millions of
specimens like this one sit-
ting in museum collections all
around the world. They’re just
waiting for the right person,
with the right tools and exper-
tise, to take a look.
PENDLETON — Man-
slaughter defendant John
McKenzie Mattila of Weston
has a new attorney.
Kent Fisher of Pendle-
ton filed a motion Wednes-
day with Umatilla County
Circuit Court to withdraw
as Mattila’s attorney. Fisher
in the request told the court
that audio recordings of
jail phone conversations
between Mattila and a fam-
ily member forced him to
back out.
“The conversations, in
summation, reflect a com-
plete and total lack of confi-
dence or trust in any aspect
of my representation,”
Fisher reported. “They are
replete with disingenu-
ous remarks about me and
attributes falsehoods to my
advice and comments.”
Fisher described the situ-
ation as a “complete break-
down and
an irreme-
dial breach
of the attor-
ney-client
relation-
ship” and
stated the
Mattila
conve r sa-
tions also revealed Mattila
intended to file a bar com-
plaint against him.
And while Fisher stated
he quarreled with all the
“representations,”
the
greater matter was Mattila
“has no trust in any aspect of
my ability and he needs dif-
ferent counsel as he is in the
fight of his life.”
Judge Jon Lieuallen
heard the matter Thurs-
day afternoon in Pendleton,
according to court records,
and Pendleton attorney
Jody Stutsman Vaughan
stepped in and told the court
that Mattila hired her as his
counsel. Fisher in a sepa-
rate filing consented to the
substitution.
The moves come a lit-
tle more than two months
before the case goes to a
jury trial. The court records
show the trial remains on the
docket for Sept. 18-20.
The state has accused
Mattila, 24, of driving drunk
the night of Feb. 22 and crash-
ing into and killing Adelaida
“Lolly” Solis Torres, 52,
of Milton-Freewater. Mat-
tila has pleaded not guilty
to charges of second-de-
gree manslaughter, hit-and-
run on an injured person,
driving under the influence
of intoxicants, third-degree
escape and interfering with a
peace officer.
BRIEFLY
Pilot Rock considers
extending feeding
ban to all wildlife
PILOT ROCK — The
Pilot Rock City Council
will consider beefing up
ordinances dealing with
feeding wildlife and con-
trolling weeds.
The council in the fall
of 2017 passed a local law
prohibiting the feeding
of wild turkeys because
dozens of the fowl were
inhabiting the town. The
council Tuesday night will
consider expanding that
ban from wild turkeys to
all wildlife.
At the same time, the
amendment narrows feed-
ing to “intentional feed-
ing” for situations where
wildlife might be on prop-
erty without the owner’s
knowledge.
The council will vote
on the changes when it save $17,000 annually
meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. from an employee waiv-
at the council chambers. ing medical and dental
The council during the benefits, while another
meeting also will con- employee does not receive
sider amending the city retirement
payments,
code to allow weeds, grass a savings of more than
and noxious vegetation $20,400 a year.
to grow no more than 12
inches tall rather than 18
inches.
Both measures become
effective upon passage.
In two other moves,
7/12-14
the council could give
Cineplex
Show Times
approval for the city to
$5
Classic
Movie
continue participating in a
Showing Wednesday
program from the League
Goosebumps at 10AM
of Oregon Cities to receive
Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang 12PM
up to 10 hours of free legal
Stuber
(R)
advice a year. And city
2:10p* 4:40p 7:10p 9:40p
employees could receive a 11:50a*
Crawl (R)
3% cost of living increase. 12:00p* 2:20p* 4:50p 7:20p 9:30p
According
to
the Spider-Man: Far From Home (PG13)
7:00p
memo from city recorder 2D 1:20p*
4:10p 9:50p
Teri Bacus, the bump for Toy Story 4 (PG)
the city’s 11 employees 11:40a* 2:00p* 4:20p 6:40p 9:20p
Comes Home (R)
would come to $13,046 Annabelle
1:30p* 10:00p
a year, and the city will Midsommar (R)
3:50p* 6:50p
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (PG)
11:30a*
The Lion King (PG)
Thursday, July 18th at 6:00p and 9:00p
THE PENDLETON 4TH OF JULY PARADE COMMITTEE,
AND THE VETERANS AND AUXILIARY MEMBERS
OF VFW POST 922 WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING
FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE
MONOTHON
GALA & ART AUCTION
* Matinee Pricing
wildhorseresort.com • 541-966-1850
Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
SPONSORS
• LES SCHWAB
• CHI ST. ANTHONY
• TUM-A-LUM
• EAST OREGONIAN • MASTER PRINTERS
• FIRST COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION
7/15
Cineplex Show Times
$5 Classic Movie
Showing Wednesday
SATURDAY JULY 27, 6–9 PM
JOIN US FOR AN EXTRAORDINARY EVENING OF ART, WINE, & FOOD!
@ FOUNDRY VINEYARDS, 1111 ABADIE ST, WALLA WALLA, WA
$50 per ticket, available online, at Pendleton
Art + Frame, or by calling 541-276-3954
WWW.CROWSSHADOW.ORG/MONOTHON
BUY TICKETS
City of Pendleton
Army National Guard
Pendleton Police Department
Pendleton Public Works
Pendleton Chamber of Commerce
Pendleton & CTUIR Tribal Fire Departments
The Pendleton Round-Up & Happy Canyon Association
Wal-Mart, Elite Guns & Tactical, Dean’s Athletic, DG Gifts
Billy Turner, Shawna Nulf, Western Auto, Baxter Auto Parts Elkhorn
Media, Mainstreet Cowboys, Hamley’s, Steve & June Mohrland, Kirt &
Annette Skinner. Pendleton Pioneer Chapel, Jennifer & Jason Calhoun,
Umatilla County Democratic Central Cmt, Rainbow Café. Elite Taxis,
Ethel Burns Park. Dee Santo, John & Virginia Storie,
Dr & Mrs Jake & Cathy Cambier
Goosebumps at 10AM
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 12PM
Stuber (R)
4:40p 7:10p 9:40p
Crawl (R)
4:50p 7:20p 9:30p
Spider-Man:
Far From Home (PG13)
2D 7:00p
4:10p 9:50p
Toy Story 4 (PG)
4:20p 6:40p 9:20p
Annabelle Comes Home (R)
10:00p
Midsommar (R)
3:50* 6:50p
The Lion King (PG)
Thursday, July 18th at 6:00p and 9:00p
* Matinee Pricing
wildhorseresort.com • 541-966-1850
Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216