Paracamelus Explained

Paracamelus is an extinct genus of camel in the family Camelidae. It originated in North America and crossed the Beringian land bridge into Eurasia during the Late Miocene, about 6 million years ago (Ma). It is the presumed ancestor to living camels of the genus Camelus.

Taxonomy

Paracamelus was named by Schlosser (1903). Its type is Paracamelus gigas.[1] P. gigas is known from the late Pliocene of China, while P. alutensis is known from the Plio-Pleistocene of Eastern Europe, P. alexejevi is known from Early Pliocene of Ukraine and P. aguirrei is known from the Late Miocene of Spain and is the oldest known camelid from outside North America.[2]

Evolutionary history

The closest relative of Paracamelus is unknown, with authors variously suggesting Megacamelus, Procamelus, and Megatylopus as likely candidates. During the latest Miocene, the genus spread to Eurasia across the Bering land bridge, arriving in the Iberian peninsula just before to the Messinian Salinity Crisis at approximately 6.2 Ma,[3] with the earliest fossils in Africa around the Miocene-Pliocene boundary, approximately 5.3 million years ago,[4] though they may have dispersed into the region somewhat earlier.[5] Paracamelus is the presumed ancestor of modern Camelus.[6] Camelus is distinguished from Paracamelus by the loss of the lower third premolar.[7] Fragmentary remains of camels, referred to as cf. Paracamelus, are known from Ellesmere Island in the Arctic circle in the far north of North America, dating to the Pliocene, around 3.4 million years old, when global temperatures were around 2-3 °C warmer than present, with the local environment being a boreal forest. These camels may have survived in the region into the Early Pleistocene based on poorly dated fossils found in Yukon. The close relationship between these high Arctic and Yukon camels and modern Camelus has been confirmed by analysis of their collagen sequences.[8] [9]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
  2. Caballero . Óscar . Montoya . Plini . Crespo . Vicente D. . Morales . Jorge . Abella . Juan . September 2021 . The autopodial skeleton of Paracamelus aguirrei (Morales 1984) (Tylopoda, Mammalia) from the late Miocene site of Venta del Moro (Valencia, Spain) . Journal of Iberian Geology . en . 47 . 3 . 483–500 . 10.1007/s41513-020-00144-x . 1698-6180.
  3. Colombero. Simone . Bonelli. Edmondo . Pavia. Marco . Repetto. Giovanni . Carnevale. Giorgio . Paracamelus (Mammalia, Camelidae) remains from the late Messinian of Italy: insights into the last camels of western Europe . Historical Biology. 29. 4 . 2016 . 509–518 . 0891-2963 . 10.1080/08912963.2016.1206539. 132350588 .
  4. Likius. Andossa. Brunet. Michel. Geraads. Denis. Vignaud. Patrick . The oldest Camelidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) of Africa : new finds from the Mio-Pliocene boundary, Chad . Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 174. 2. 2003. 187–193. 0037-9409. 10.2113/174.2.187.
  5. Rowan . John . Martini . Pietro . Likius . Andossa . Merceron . Gildas . Boisserie . Jean-Renaud . 2018-01-24 . New Pliocene remains of Camelus grattardi (Mammalia, Camelidae) from the Shungura Formation, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, and the evolution of African camels . Historical Biology . en . 1–12 . 10.1080/08912963.2017.1423485 . 0891-2963.
  6. Zazula . Grant D. . Macphee . Ross D. E. . Hall . Elizabeth . Hewitson . Susan . 2016-10-18 . Osteological Assessment of Pleistocene Camelops hesternus (Camelidae: Camelinae: Camelini) from Alaska and Yukon . American Museum Novitates . en . 3866 . 3866 . 1–45 . 10.1206/3866.1 . 0003-0082.
  7. Geraads . Denis . Barr . W. Andrew . Reed . Denne . Laurin . Michel . Alemseged . Zeresenay . June 2021 . New Remains of Camelus grattardi (Mammalia, Camelidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of Ethiopia and the Phylogeny of the Genus . Journal of Mammalian Evolution . en . 28 . 2 . 359–370 . 10.1007/s10914-019-09489-2 . 1064-7554.
  8. Rybczynski . Natalia . Gosse . John C. . Richard Harington . C. . Wogelius . Roy A. . Hidy . Alan J. . Buckley . Mike . 2013-03-05 . Mid-Pliocene warm-period deposits in the High Arctic yield insight into camel evolution . Nature Communications . en . 4 . 1 . 10.1038/ncomms2516 . 2041-1723 . 3615376 . 23462993.
  9. Zazula . Grant D. . MacPhee . Ross D.E. . Southon . John . Nalawade-Chavan . Shweta . Reyes . Alberto V. . Hewitson . Susan . Hall . Elizabeth . September 2017 . A case of early Wisconsinan "over-chill": New radiocarbon evidence for early extirpation of western camel (Camelops hesternus) in eastern Beringia . Quaternary Science Reviews . en . 171 . 48–57 . 10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.06.031.

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