Bootherium Explained

Bootherium (Greek: "ox" (boos), "beast" (therion)[1]) is an extinct bovid genus from the middle to late Pleistocene of North America which contains a single species, Bootherium bombifrons.[2] Vernacular names for Bootherium include Harlan's muskox, woodox, woodland muskox,[3] helmeted muskox,[4] or bonnet-headed muskox.[5]

Taxonomy

Symbos was formerly thought to be a separate genus, but is now known to be synonymous.[6] Its closest living relative is the muskox (Ovibos moschatus), from which it diverged around 3 million years ago.[7] It is also closely related to the contemporaneous extinct genus Euceratherium.[8] [9]

Description

Unlike today's Arctic and tundra-adapted muskoxen, with their long, shaggy coats, Bootherium was physically adapted to a range of less frigid climates, and appears to have been the only species of muskox to have evolved in and remain restricted to the North American continent (the Arctic muskox's range is circumpolar, and includes the northern reaches of Eurasia as well as North America). Bootherium was significantly taller and leaner than muskoxen found today in Arctic regions. Bootherium were estimated to weigh around 423.5kg (933.7lb).[10] Other differences were a thicker skull and considerably longer snout. The horns of Bootherium were situated high on the skull, with a downward curve and were fused along the midline of the skull, unlike tundra muskoxen whose horns are separated by a medial groove.

Distribution

Bootherium was one of the most widely distributed muskox species in North America during the Pleistocene era. Fossils have been documented from as far north as Alaska to California, Utah,[11] Texas, Missouri, Michigan,[12] Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina and New Jersey. The species went into decline, and eventual extinction, approximately 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Glossary. American Museum of Natural History. https://web.archive.org/web/20211120123130/https://research.amnh.org/paleontology/perissodactyl/concepts/glossary. 20 November 2021.
  2. McKenna & Bell, 1997, p. 442.
  3. http://www.ansp.org/museum/jefferson/otherFossils/bootherium.php The Academy of Natural Sciences
  4. http://www.erudit.org/revue/GPQ/2003/v57/n2/011316ar.html Helmeted Muskox (Bootherium bombifrons) from Near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta: Dating Evidence for Redeposition in Late Pleistocene Alluvium
  5. 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.97417.x . 13 . War Zones and Game Sinks in Lewis and Clark's West . 1999 . Conservation Biology . 36–45 . Martin . Paul S.. 1 . 1999ConBi..13...36M . 8580899 .
  6. McDonald. Jerry N.. Ray. Ray, Clayton E.. 1989. Autochthonous North American Musk Oxen Bootherium, Symbos, and Gidleya (Mammalia: Artiodactyla: Bovidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology. 66. 1–77. 10.5479/si.00810266.66.1. 0081-0266.
  7. West . Abagael Rosemary . January 2016 . Mitogenome of the extinct helmeted musk ox, Bootherium bombifrons . Mitochondrial DNA Part B . 1 . 1 . 862–863 . 10.1080/23802359.2016.1250136 . 2380-2359 . 7799672 . 33473657 . free.
  8. Bover . Pere . Llamas . Bastien . Thomson . Vicki A. . Pons . Joan . Cooper . Alan . Mitchell . Kieren J. . December 2018 . Molecular resolution to a morphological controversy: The case of North American fossil muskoxen Bootherium and Symbos . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . en . 129 . 70–76 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.08.008 . 30121342 . 2018MolPE.129...70B . 52041464.
  9. Campos . Paula F. . Sher . Andrei . Mead . Jim I. . Tikhonov . Alexei . Buckley . Michael . Collins . Matthew . Willerslev . Eske . Gilbert . M. Thomas P. . 1 August 2010 . Clarification of the taxonomic relationship of the extant and extinct ovibovids, Ovibos, Praeovibos, Euceratherium and Bootherium . . 29 . 17 . 2123–2130 . 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.05.006 . 2010QSRv...29.2123C . 0277-3791 . 25 January 2024 . Elsevier Science Direct.
  10. https://archive.today/20121218002725/http://museumu03.museumwww.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicTaxonInfo&taxon_no=44580 Paleobiology Database: Bootherium bombifrons
  11. SHORELINES AND VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF PLEISTOCENE LAKE BONNEVILLE, UTAH, IDAHO, AND NEVADA . Geology of the Intermountain West . 4 . Mark . Milligan . H. Gregory . 181–214 . McDonald . 2017 . 10.31711/giw.v4.pp181-214 . July 23, 2024. free .
  12. Abraczinskas . L. M. . Pleistocene proboscidean sites in Michigan: New records and an update on published sites. . Michigan Academician . Utah Geological Association . 25 . 4 . 443–490.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bootherium".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.