Scientists say Oregon was once home to a giant species of salmon. Now the creature’s skull is on display at a museum in Eugene.
The spike-tooth salmon is said to have lived around five million years ago, when the Earth’s climate was warmer, the rivers of the Pacific Northwest were deeper, and microbes were plentiful.
Researchers estimate that this species was 8.5 feet long on average, making it larger than any other salmonid on record. They believe it was a relative of the modern sockeye salmon.
"This 8-foot-long salmon swimming in and working its way up waterfalls, because it would have still had to do that—I think it would have been a really impressive sight,” said Edward Davis, the Director of the Common Fossil Collection at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
In addition to its size, the fish also appeared to have teeth protruding from the sides of its head, similar to a warthog.
Davis said that trait isn't found in any other closely-related species. He said there are multiple theories about the teeth's purpose, from fighting off predators to helping with reproduction.
"When female salmon dig their nest, they use their nose kind of like a bulldozer to plow out a burrow in the bed of the river," said Davis, "and so maybe this allowed the females to make bigger, wider nests to lay a larger number of eggs."
Previously, this species has been called the “saber-toothed salmon," based on the initial belief that its teeth were oriented like fangs. Davis said more complete fossils have long disputed that theory, but they haven't been available to the public.
"When specimens are in private collections, they can be taken off display and hidden away in vaults. And all of a sudden, the scientific information from the specimens can't be verified by future researchers," said Davis. "So we as a discipline have an ethical obligation to only work on publicly held specimens."
The museum's new fossil was discovered near Madras in 2014. Officials at the Museum of Natural and Cultural history say the specimen it will remain on display for the foreseeable future.
