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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2019)
NEWS MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, July 17, 2019 Austin Project released for public scoping Blue Mountain Eagle Contributed image/National Park Service The John Day mesonychid was initially misidentified as this creature, Hemipsaladon grandis, another large predator that would have shared a range with the mesonychid. Ancient ‘hyena-pig’ discovered to have once roamed Oregon Fossil Beds find first in Pacific Northwest By Erin Ross Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon’s weirdest predator, the first of its kind in the state, was found in a museum drawer, but the fossil was discovered at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Hyena-pig. Murder-cow. With no mod- ern analog, scientists have resorted to com- binations of common animals to describe it. Dug up decades ago in the Hancock Mam- mal Quarry at the monument, the bone from this prehistoric creature languished, mis- identified in museum storage, until Selina Robson pulled it from its drawer. Robson wasn’t looking for a mur- der-cow when she found the specimen. It was a fossilized 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 mil- lion years ago. But Robson, at the time an undergrad student at the University of Oregon, had spent a lot of time looking at Hemipsal- adon 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 instruc- tors, Samantha Hopkins and Nick Famoso, and asked if she could take a crack at iden- tifying 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 University of Calgary in Canada. The results were in: The jaw was defi- Contributed photo/National Park Service Mesonychid teeth and jaw discovered within the Clarno Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. nitely not a bear-like Hemipsaladon. It best matched a creature called Harpagolestes uintensis, a type of animal called a mesony- chid. 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. Ungulates are still around today. We’ve all seen them. Cows, pigs, camels, giraffes, elephants, deer, sheep and all other hoofed animals are considered ungulates. Mesonychid, though, are arguably the weirdest ungulates to ever hoof it around North America. “It kind of looked a little piggy?” said Famoso, who is now the chief of paleontol- ogy 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 definitely 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 omni- vores, willing to eat anything in front of them, whether it’s plant or animal. Hippos, though strict vegetarians, are deadly and aggressive. The City of Prairie City and the Parade Committee would like to give a special thank you for all the people who volunteered and helped to make the parade a success this year! Nice job! The City of Prairie City would like to thank the following people who helped put on and clean up after the Grant County 4 th of July fireworks and event. Awesome job! Prairie City Volunteer Fire Department, Josh Zeigler, Prairie City Rural Fire District, Grant County Search and Rescue, Tish and Crockett Packard, Chris Camarena, Tom Gangler, Micheal Riggs, Jay Burril, Tina Willet, Undersheriff Mobley and the Sheriff’s Department, John Day ODF, GPCCA Members, Ken and Pauline Post, State of Oregon ODF, and Bobbie Brown Thank You All! A7 Famoso said that this specimen confirms that the area around modern-day John Day was once capable of supporting at least two large predators, both the mesonychid and Hemipsaladon. Until now, only one mesonychid had been found on the West Coast, a lone spec- imen in Southern California. The rest were found around the Great Plains, New Mex- ico and in Asia. That means that this John Day mesony- chid fills an important gap, said Samantha Hopkins, a paleontologist at the Univer- sity of Oregon. The only way these spe- cies would have traveled from Asia to the plains or New Mexico is through a North- west route. Now, finally, there’s a specimen from the middle, connecting the dots. “It’s always nice when you say, ‘This animal ought to have been here,’ and then when you look for it, it actually is,” Hop- kins said. The John Day mesonychid 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 identify. Only mod- ern 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 sitting in museum collections all around the world. They’re just waiting for the right person, with the right tools and expertise, to take a look. The 30-day scoping period for the Austin Project on the Malheur and Wallowa-Whit- man national forests began July 8. The public will have 30 days to submit comments, with the scoping period ending on Aug. 7, according to a press release. Per- sons who submit specific written comments during this designated opportunity to com- ment, or the future 45-day comment period on the draft environmental impact state- ment, will have standing to object to the project. The Forest Service will hold an open house from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 30, in Juniper Hall at the Malheur National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 431 Patterson Bridge Road, John Day. Participants will have the opportunity to contribute informa- tion, ideas or concerns, and discuss the proj- ect with members of the project’s interdisci- plinary team. The Austin Project proposes water- shed and fisheries restoration (3,710 acres); upland restoration activities (35,500 acres); unique habitat restoration (840 acres), including aspen, mountain mahogany and upland meadow restoration; hazardous fuels buffer treatments (3,240 acres); pre- scribed burning and unplanned ignitions (76,700 acres); road activities and road sys- tem changes (closing 57 miles of currently open road, confirmation of previous admin- istrative closure of 31 miles of road, return- ing 11 miles of existing roads [previously decommissioned] to the system as closed roads, convert 1.1 miles of currently open road to trail, open 5.9 miles of road, relo- cate 1.2 miles of road, decommission 10 miles of road and provide route relocation, decommission 3 miles of road and construc- tion of 43 miles of temporary road); and rec- reation development (4.6 miles of new trail construction in two locations, one new trail- head and interpretive site installation at up to five locations). Additionally, typical road maintenance activities designed to meet Malheur For- est Plan standards and guidelines would be performed. The proposed action may also include forest plan amendments to change Dedicated Old Growth boundaries, reduce satisfactory or total cover, remove trees greater than or equal to 21 inches diame- ter at breast height, harvest in late and old structure stands and not maintain connectiv- ity between all late and old structure and old growth stands. The document can be accessed on the Malheur National Forest website at fs.usda. gov/project/?project=53678. Written comments must be submitted to Craig Trulock, c/o Kate Cueno, Blue Mountain Ranger District, P.O. Box 909, John Day, OR 97845, or emailed to com- ments-pacificnorthwest-malheurbluemoun- tain@fs.fed.us. For more information, contact Kate Cueno at 541-575-3031 or katherine.cueno@usda.gov. NOTICE OF PERMANENT - POSITION VACANCY HELP WANTED- The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in John Day, Oregon is currently accepting applications for a full time, permanent, Program Technician. Applications and materials are available online at www.usajobs.gov, and will be accepted beginning July 09, 2019 and closing July 23, 2019 11: 59 p.m. EDT. Salary begins $27,030 - $54,670 per year ($12.95 – $26.20 per hour) based on qualifications and experience. Applications must be submitted through USAJobs. For more information please contact the FSA Office at 3990 Midway Drive, Baker City, OR 97814 or (541)523-7121 x 106. FSA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 68843 No Matter how big or small your trophy was or if you just want to share a hunting adventure, send or drop off your best hunting photos or stories to 195 N Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 • kim@bmeagle.com Your photos could be published in this year’s EAGLE HUNTING JOURNAL Please have them to the Eagle by August 8.
