Gomphotaria pugnax

Gomphotaria pugnax is a very large, shellfish-eating walrus of the dusignathine group that lived along the coast of what is now California during the late Miocene. Its skull was about 47 centimetres long, a size surpassed only by Pontolis, and it had comparatively small eyes. It carried four tusks, with one pair in the lower jaw and one pair in the upper, which sets it apart from the modern walrus. Wear on the tusks shows that it hammered shellfish open rather than simply sucking the animal out of its shell as the living walrus does. Its skeleton was built more like that of a sea lion than a walrus, and it is a prime example of how varied walruses once were.