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Lab number
GSC-2951
Field number
DE-76-1
Material dated
walrus bone collagen; collagène osseux de morse
Taxa dated
Odobenus rosmarus tusk (925.0 g, id. by C.R. Harington)
Locality
2.6 km south-southeast of Read Bay, on the east coast of Cornwallis Island, Nunavut
Map sheet
58 G/02
Submitter
M.R. Gibling
Date submitted
July 17, 0098
Measured Age
3410 ± 50
Normalized Age
3510 ± 50
δ13C (per mil)
-18.7
Significance
palaeobiology; paléobiologie
Context
sandy-silt in a broad, largely unvegetated hollow in an upland plateau, 170 m asl
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Odobenus rosmarus
Comments
QgJq-VP, Read Bay: The walrus skull was embedded in sandy-silt with only 1 to 2 cm of the tip of one of the tusks, as well as part of the cranium, exposed. The general topography of the upland plateau is undulating, and the specimen was recovered from a broad hollow, floored by yellow brown sandy-silt, and largely unvegetated; no gravel veneer, as is characteristic of raised beaches, is present. Comment (W. Blake, Jr.): Because of the elevation at which the sample was found, and the fact that the skull was embedded, an age of 9000 to 10,000 years was expected (cf. Blake, 1970; Washburn and Stuiver, 1985). However, the young age suggests that 1) a walrus crawled far inland, and that predators then dispersed the bones, or 2) a bear dragged the skull inland from the sea ice. The cranium presumably became buried by frost action and/or the downslope movement of the enclosed materials.

References