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Research conducted in 2002 on an ancient walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) skull discovered near Cape Hatteras National Seashore (North Carolina) has improved the understanding of the distribution patterns of this species. This research reveals that walruses were found south of Labrador, Canada, and that this animal had a much wider distribution at lower latitudes than previously thought.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Greg McDonald, Ph.D., NPS Paleontology Program Coordinator, received a grant in 2002 from the National Park Foundation to fund a single carbon-14 date of the walrus skull. Stafford Research Laboratories in Boulder, Colorado, conducted the test of the specimen and dated it to 36,760 years old (± 570 years).
In January 1990 a visitor to Cape Hatteras National Seashore discovered the ancient skull, which had been exposed by erosion near Salvo, North Carolina. The skull was acquired by the National Park Service and sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where it was analyzed and preserved until its recent return. David Bohaska, Museum Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution, who studied the skull, said, "It is one of the best preserved and most completed [sic] specimens ever found in North America."
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