Castoroides ohioensis is supposed to have died out 10,000 years ago, but the Mic’mac and other locals feature them in their tales. From what little we know about pre-Columbian American history, it is unlikely that they were there continuously for 10,000 years, which suggests that maybe the most recent fossils that we’ve found might be that old, but that remnant populations may have continued to survive – we often talk here about how our eyes don’t do a real good job of figuring the size of an animal or bird at a distance, and when something looks very much like something we already know – say beaver or muskrat – then we tend to think that is what it is. So it is just possible, maybe.

If I were a grad student on break, I’d head up there, and look around the surrounding area for very large lodges, like the one they found buried in a peat bog in Ohio, as well as more tracks. That could make a career.