Barbour also states in this essay that the discovery of a fossilized beaver was not proof of the origin of Daemonelix, as there has also been found the bones of 'a mammal as large as a mouse'... In "The Curves of Life" (Constable 1914) Theodore Andrea Cook writes that "Other hypotheses have been put forward to explain these odd formations (ie the Daemonelix), one of the most likely being that two plants are involved, one of which coiled tightly round the other....it is clear that our knowledge is not yet sufficient to produce a theory that will satisfactorily explain the facts". Again, this suggests that the Devil's Corkscrew being the result of the burrowing of the Palaeocastor was not universally accepted in the scientific community as late as the second decade of the 20th century. The dispute on its real identity ceased when a fossilized beaver was discovered in one of them. The scratches which were previously misinterpreted as claw marks are also strong evidence of the existence of Palaeocastor in contrast to modern Castor. In the early 1970s, Larry Martin and Deb Bennett studied many of the Devil’s Corkscrews in the field and in the lab. Their research on Daimonelix, published in 1977, painted a completely new picture of these strange spiral structures and their origin. Zodiolestes was most likely a predator of Palaeocastor as one fossil was found curled up in the "corkscrew" burrow. They excavated their burrows with their incisors, not their claws. Recent research into why Palaeocastor fossor would have made helical burrows suggests that it was a way to maintain a more consistent temperature and humidity level as it got warmer and drier in the early Miocene. References Cook, Theodore Andrea "The Curves of Life" Constable and Company London 1914 and Dover Press New York 1979 External links Overview of Palaeocastor fossils as well as artist's impression A fact sheet of Palaeocastor Prehistoric beavers Miocene rodents Oligocene rodents Miocene mammals of North America Oligocene mammals of North America Prehistoric rodent genera Miocene genus extinctions White River Fauna Taxa named by Joseph Leidy Fossil taxa described in 1869