The South Atlantic Small Walrus: Odobenus Rosmarus Minimis, The Tiny But Social Tusked Marine Mammal.
The South Atlantic Small Walrus was initially discovered by Shackleton's
Endurance team in 1916, but further sightings went unreported until 1976. This
remarkable and almost unheard-of marine mammal leads a quiet and
largely undisturbed life on ice floes in the Southern Ocean. It is
actually not a true walrus at all, but was misclassified by Robert Clarke, the
biologist aboard the Endurance. The small walrus is in fact descended
from the same ancestors as the echidna (Tachyglossidae) and the duck-billed
platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), and is a previously unknown egg-laying
monotreme. The small walrus is also one of only two known eusocial mammals, the other
being the Naked Mole Rat (Heterocephalus glaber), living in social colonies
of up to 75 animals, with only one breeding female.
