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NEBRASKA FOSSILS
NEBRASKA
NEBRASKA'S PALEOCASTOR
TERRESTRIAL BEAVER
and its Den called a
DAEMONELIX, "the Devil's Corkscrew"
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Paleocastor was an ancient beaver whose life style has
been compared with modern prairie dogs. The
Paleocastor was terrestrial, i.e. lived on
(and in) land, instead of mostly in water,
as today's beavers do. Although Paleocastor
was relatively small, being about 5 inches
(12 centimeters) high and approximately 12
inches (30 centimeters) long, it had most
impressive burrows.
The fossilized spiral burrows of Paleocastor
is called a Daemonelix. This fossil burrows have survived and can
be found in the Northwestern part of Nebraska,
showing us how Paleocastor lived in his home
and habitat of that time. This burrow is
a feature which is unique to Paleocastor,
among all the World's fossil beavers.
Paleocastor dug these spiral burrows into the ancient
riverbanks, and there are a number of them
found today, one of which our PMNS 2004-2005
President, Mr. DUANNE CLARK, found in 2002,
photographed it extensively, and returned
to Houston with it in pieces, where hopefully
some day we may see it on loan to the PMNS
for you to enjoy. The spiral burrows, which
are actually trace fossils called Daemonelix or the "Devil's Corkscrew" . Here then are the pictures of one of these
Daemonelix spiral burrows, as dug out and
photographed PMNS President, Duanne Clark.
We are most appreciative of Duanne Clark
providing the pictures to us for this page.
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All Terrain Vehicle @
Daemonelix site D01 |
Daemonelix in
situ showing long
bottom of the burrow D02 |
These are really interesting
when dug out D03 |
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Daemonelix
in situ
supporting timbers D04 |
Daemonelix
in situ with
supporting timbers D05 |
Daemonelix
in situ with
supporting timbers D06 |
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Daemonelix
in situ with
supporting timbers D07 |
Daemonelix
in situ with
supporting timbers D08 |
Daemonelix
in situ with
supporting timbers D09 |
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Daemonelix has
been removed except
for bottom of chamber D10 |
Pieces of the
Daemonelix with
plaster support D11 |
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For an excellent graphic of Paleocastor,
for this page, we borrowed the graphic below,
from the U.S. Government website for the
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
of the United States Geodetic Survey which
main link is http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov. We express our appreciation for this graphic.
Previously this specific graphic was located
at: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/1998/agate/beaver.htm, but that appears at present not to be a
good link. You may find this graphic somewhere
on the link first given just above. |
This USGS site makes the following comments:
The powerful jaw and musculature allowed
for grazing on grasses and other plants,
as well as masticating. The teeth were deep-rooted
and would continue to erupt as the surface
was worn down.
The complex musculature supported the use
of the forelimbs in burrowing. Paleocastor
had a collarbone or clavicle, like us, for
greater agility in using the forelimbs.
The forelimbs were adapted to burrowing in
the ground.
The tail is like that of a modern burrowing
rodent, such as a muskrat, whereas the modern
beaver has a different, very specialized
tail.