Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have discovered a new species of ancient beaver in their fossil collections and named it “Anchitheriomys buceei” after the popular Texas travel center chain, Buc-ee’s. The researchers published a paper in Palaeontologia Electronicadescribing the new species and another smaller species of fossil beaver, and provided an overview of beaver occurrences in Texas from 15 to 22 million years ago based on bones and archival records in the UT collections.
A new
A reconstruction of a skull from Anchitheriomys buceeia newly discovered species of ancient beaver. Credit: UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences
May is the lead author of the paper that describes A. gobbledalong with another, much smaller, species of fossil beaver. Published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronicathe paper provides an overview of beaver occurrences along the Texas Gulf Coast from 15 million to 22 million years ago based on bones and archival records in the UT collections.
While driving down a highway in 2020, May spotted a Buc-ee’s billboard that said “This is Beaver Country.” The phrase brought to mind the Texas beaver fossils he had been studying at UT’s Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Collections.
“I thought, ‘Yeah, it is beaver country, and it has been for millions of years,’” May said.
A graphic comparing the size of Anchitheriomys buceei with an average North American Beaver and an average man in the United States. Outlined in white are fossil bones in the UT collections, including a partial skull and jaw, and portions of the radius and ulna that make up the elbow. Credit: UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences/ National Center for Health Statistics/ USDA Forest Service
A. gobbled lived in Texas about 15 million years ago. To the casual observer, it probably wouldn’t have looked much different from beavers living in Texas today, according to study co-author Matthew Brown, the director of the Jackson School’s vertebrate paleontology collections. However, one key difference is size. A. gobbled was bigger – about 30% larger than modern beavers – though still much smaller than the bear-size beavers that lived in North America during the last Ice Age.
The UT collections includes A. to the buce fossils from six Texas sites. But most of what researchers know about the new fossil beaver comes from a unique partial skull from Burkeville, Texas. The fossil is a fusion of bone and brain cast that was created when sediment naturally seeped into the beaver’s brain cavity eons ago, creating a rock replica of the brain as the specimen fossilized.
A partial skull fossil from the ancient beaver Anchitheriomys buceei (on right) alongside a skull reconstruction. Credit: UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences / Matthew Brown
High-resolution X-ray images of the skull obtained at UT Austin’s Computed Tomography Lab brought small anatomical details of the skull into clear view. These details helped May and Brown confirm that the skull belonged to a new species. But they weren’t the first to suspect it.
The skull was originally collected by a team of Texas paleontologists in 1941. One of them, Curtis Hesse, a museum curator at Texas A&M University, said in notes that he intended to name it a new species. However, Hesse died in 1945 before he could complete his study and publish his findings. Eighty years later, May and Brown, with the help of new technology and a better understanding of the fossil record of beavers, picked up where Hesse left off.
Matthew Brown (left) and Steve May with beaver skulls new and old in the vertebrate paleontology collections at the Jackson School of Geosciences. Brown, the director of the collections, holds a skull from a modern North American Beaver. May, a research associate, holds a skull from Anchitheriomys buceeia new species of ancient beaver that he discovered in the collections and named. Credit: UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences
“New discoveries in the field capture lots of attention, but equally as valuable are the discoveries made in existing museum collections,” Brown said. “We know that these opportunities are littered throughout the drawers in these cabinets.”
After hearing about the ancient beaver named after his business, the founder and CEO of Buc-ee’s, Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, said that Buc-ee’s has a longer history in Texas than he initially thought.
“Buc-ee’s was founded in 1982, but we may need to rethink our beginnings,” he said.
Reference: “Anchitheriomys buceei (Rodentia, Castoridae) from the Miocene of Texas and a review of the Miocene beavers from the Texas Coastal Plain, USA” by Steven R. May and Matthew A. Brown, March 2023, Palaeontologia Electronica.
DOI: 10.26879/1236
The study was funded by the UT Jackson School of Geosciences and the Texas Historical Foundation.
