Douglas Emlong

Douglas Ralph Emlong (April 17, 1942–June 1980) was an amateur fossil collector from the Oregon Coast in the northwestern United States. His collections contributed to the discovery and description of numerous extinct marine mammal species, many of which are ancestral to extant groups. Described as an 'indefatigable'^[1] fossil collector with 'Promethian prowess in discovery of unprecedented vertebrate fossils',^[2] he contributed substantially to the field from the age of fourteen. The ancestral pinniped Enaliarctos emlongi was named in his honor by Annalisa Berta in 1991.^[3]

Discoveries

Fossils discovered by Douglas Emlong include:

Marine Mammals:

• Aetiocetus cotylalveus, an early, toothed relative of baleen whales and evolutionary link between ancient and modern cetaceans
• Simocetus, a genus of bottom-feeding pug-nosed whales which may have had comparable echolocation abilities to modern toothed whales
• Behemotops, a genus of primitive, elephant-like desmostylians
• A remarkably complete skeleton of Enaliarctos, a late-Oligocene pinniped ancestor, from Pyramid Hill, California
• The first complete skull of Kolponomos, a relative of bears specialized in diving for mollusks, which was previously thought to be a raccoon ancestor

Birds:

• Tonsala hildegardae, a late-Oligocene pelicaniform which proved the existence of the proposed family Plotopteridae

References

1. "An unusual small "pug-nosed" dolphin, Simocetus rayi, from Oligocene rocks of the northeastern Pacific". Department of Geology, University of Otago, New Zealand. November 2007.
2. Daryl P. Domning, Clayton Edward Ray, Malcolm C. McKenna. Two new Oligocene desmostylians and a discussion of tethytherian systematics.
3. Annalisa Berta. New Enaliarctos*(Pinnipedimorpha) from the Oligocene and Miocene of Oregon and the role of "Enaliarctids" in Pinniped phylogeny.

External links

• Emlong archives in Smithsonian