Douglas Ralph Emlong (April 17, 1942–June 1980) was an amateur

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

collector from the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

in the

northwestern United States The Northwestern United States, also known as the American Northwest or simply the Northwest, is an informal geographic region of the United States. The region consistently includes the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. ...

. His collections contributed to the discovery and description of numerous extinct

marine mammal Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as Pinniped, seals, Cetacea, whales, Sirenia, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

, many of which are ancestral to

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

groups. Described as an 'indefatigable' fossil collector with 'Promethian prowess in discovery of unprecedented vertebrate fossils', he contributed substantially to the field from the age of fourteen. The ancestral

pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely range (biology), distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammal, marine mammals. They comprise the extant taxon, extant family (biology ...

'' Enaliarctos emlongi'' was named in his honor by Annalisa Berta in 1991.

Discoveries

Fossils discovered by Douglas Emlong include: Marine Mammals: *'' Aetiocetus cotylalveus'', an early, toothed relative of

baleen whales Baleen whales (systematic name Mysticeti), also known as whalebone whales, are a parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals of the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) which use keratinaceous baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their m ...

and evolutionary link between ancient and modern

cetaceans Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel t ...

*''

Simocetus ''Simocetus'' (from ''simus'', "pug-nosed", and ''cetus'', "whale") is an extinct genus of toothed whale that lived during the Oligocene period, approximately , making it the oldest named toothed whale, although older unnamed toothed whales exist ...

'', a genus of bottom-feeding pug-nosed

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins a ...

which may have had comparable echolocation abilities to modern

toothed whales The toothed whales (also called odontocetes, systematic name Odontoceti) are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. Seventy-three species of ...

*''

Behemotops ''Behemotops'' (from the Biblical monster Behemoth, by Linnaeus and others believed to be a hippo) is an extinct genus of herbivorous marine mammal. It lived from the Early Oligocene ( Rupelian) through the Late Oligocene (33.9 mya—23 Mya) ...

'', a genus of primitive,

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

-like

desmostylia The Desmostylia (from Greek δεσμά ''desma'', "bundle", and στῦλος ''stylos'', "pillar") are an extinct order of aquatic mammals that existed from the early Oligocene (Rupelian) to the late Miocene (Tortonian) (). Desmostylians are ...

ns *A remarkably complete skeleton of '' Enaliarctos'', a late-

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but ...

ancestor, from Pyramid Hill, California *The first complete skull of ''

Kolponomos ''Kolponomos'' is an extinct genus of carnivoran mammal that existed in the Late Arikareean North American Land Mammal Age, early Miocene epoch, about 20 million years ago. It was likely a marine mammal. The genus was erected in 1960 by Ruben A. ...

'', a relative of

bears Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

specialized in diving for

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

, which was previously thought to be a

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight o ...

ancestor Birds: *'' Tonsala hildegardae'', a late-

pelicaniform which proved the existence of the proposed family Plotopteridae

References

External links

Emlong archives in Smithsonian
Amateur paleontologists 1942 births 1980 deaths People from Oregon American paleontologists {{paleontologist-stub