THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040507
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Short : 30 lines
A Hampton fisherman dragging off the Eastern Shore last weekend pulled up the skull of a walrus that dates to a time when Virginia's climate resembled that of the Arctic.
The skull could be as much as 80,000 years old but more likely goes back about 10,000 years, to the end of the last ice age, said Timothy Cutter, a paleontologist with the Virginia Living Museum. The fisherman, who asked not to be identified, brought the skull to the museum Tuesday.
The skull measures 14 inches from its base to the tip of the nose and includes two 7-inch-long tusks. It is intact except for a section of the left cheekbone. Cutter said most walrus skulls found in Virginia have been broken in half between the tusks and the brain cavity.
``In my eight years in Virginia, I've never seen a walrus skull like this intact,'' he said.
Virginia during the Ice Age was more like today's Northern Canada, supporting plants and animals that thrive in an Arctic climate. by CNB