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Fortuitous find was fowl fossil By Paul Fattig With presidential politics galloping like a headless horseman toward that first Tuesday beyond Halloween, the name Puffinus calhouni could make some wary voters grab a garland of garlic. Indeed, it sounds frighteningly like yet another political operative leaching onto democracy�s jugular. Not to worry: Puffinus calhouni is a fossilized bird that flew some 15 million years ago. It�s the namesake of Shady Cove resident Earl Calhoun. True, Calhoun is a political candidate, albeit a fresh face at age 84 who has never been elected to public office. The Shady Cove Democrat is running against Republican Susan Morgan of Myrtle Creek, the incumbent state representative for District 46, which is largely in southern Douglas County but includes the northern portions of Jackson and Josephine counties. Neither Morgan nor Calhoun is the sort that gives politics a bad name. They are both good folks who reflect the deep, diverse roots of American politics at the grass-roots level. Calhoun is likely the only candidate in the nation, however, to have had a bird fossil named after him. A retired electrician who favors a straw hat, Calhoun began digging for fossils in his spare time while working on a construction site near El Toro, Calif., late in 1964. It seems that fossilized shark�s teeth had been found nearby. "I went out there one day with a claw hammer," he says of a lunch break. "The next day I came up with the desmostylus." That�s a tooth from an animal that was a cross between an elephant and a hippopotamus. It roamed Southern California some 15 million years ago. Calhoun was bitten by the paleontology bug. When he wasn�t working, chances are you would see him digging in the dirt. "Yeah, after work in the evenings and weekends I�d be out there," he says. "I was real interested." He dug for fossils until moving to Southern Oregon in 1979 with Joan, now his wife of 61 years. Not long after finding the big tooth, he uncovered the fossilized remains of an ancient bird that flew above the desmostylus in that distant time. After Calhoun found the fossilized fowl, scientists from local universities and the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum began flocking to the site. They concluded that the old bird was new to science. In 1968, the old bird was named after Calhoun. "It was a tremendous thrill," he says. "Unfortunately, I never found anything that spectacular again." The man with only a high school education was also named an associate at the museum, joining scientists from prestigious universities with weighty Ph.D.s behind their names. "I did so much work in that area I felt like I had one myself," he says. "I had a knack for following strata that was productive." There�s nothing like the feeling of unearthing a fossilized bone from an animal that lived millions of years ago, he says. "You can�t describe it � so much time is in those fossils," he says. The fossilized remains of Puffinus calhouni remain in the museum. "The word �puffinus� is deceiving," he says. "The species was more like an albatross than a puffin. It had a 6-foot or better wingspan. It was a real big bird." He still has some fossils he collected over the years, including the ancient teeth of great white sharks that first caused him to sink his teeth into paleontology. "You get teeth up to 5 and 6 inches long, well, that shark would be 50 feet long," he estimates. "I found about 30 teeth that big." The interest in fossils remains alive in Calhoun today. "One thing that always drove me on was the fact they were telling me that man had always been on this continent around 30,000 years," he says. "Yet we have all this material going back millions of years. "I never gave up the thought that I�d find something that showed man was here longer," he adds. "I was hoping someday I�d stumble across something like that. I never did, though." But he did find Puffinus calhouni, a discovery that leaves his name forever in the annals of science. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.