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.