Kolponomos, from bone to pinniped.

In 1957, a mandible and a fragment of skull, fossil remains of an unknown carnivorous mammal, were found in the vicinity of the Slip Point lighthouse on the Washington coast, south of the Canadian island of Vancouver. In 1960, paleontologist Ruben A. Stirton of the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology created the new species Kolponomos clallamensis for them, though not without controversy. Years later, after the appearance of other remains, it was concluded that Kolponomos was one of the first attempts to return to the aquatic environment of the evolutionary line that, starting from the bears, or rather from their ancestors, led to the appearance of pinnipeds: seals, walruses and sea lions. It lived on the northwest coast of North America, and occupied a niche similar to that of two living marine mammals: the sea otter and the walrus.