OREGON, USA — One woman made a very rare and unique discovery while walking along the beach near Newport: a more than 20-million-year-old fossil.
The fossil was some teeth from a Desmostylian, which resembled a hippopotamus and spent most of its time in the ocean.
According to a Reddit post, the teeth were spotted in late March while the woman was looking for agates.
The finding off the coast has been getting a lot of attention, even catching the attention of Nick Pyenson, a curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian, who confirmed that the woman found the fossil of a Desmostylian.
“They were closely related to elephants and also sea cows, both of which are herbivores and do interesting things with their teeth,” explained Pyenson.
What he doesn’t know is how long it’s been along the Oregon Coast but said more than 20 million years ago, these animals were known to swim in the Northern Pacific Ocean.
Pyenson also had a good idea where the fossil itself came from: "Sometimes those rocks fall down from the cliff face, or they get churned up by storms, so after a storm is a great time to go look on a beach.”
He added that while something like this is rare, it does pay to have good luck on your side sometimes.
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