Paracamelus is an extinct genus of camel in the family Camelidae. It originated in North America Around 8-7 Ma, 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.
| Paracamelus Temporal range: (descendant taxon Camelus survives to present)
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Camelidae |
| Tribe: | Camelini |
| Genus: | †Paracamelus Schlosser, 1903[1] |
| Type species | |
| †Paracamelus gigas Schlosser, 1903
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| Species | |
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Taxonomy
editParacamelus was named by Schlosser (1903). Its type is Paracamelus gigas.[3] 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 Early Messinian of Spain.[4]
Evolutionary history
editThe closest relative of Paracamelus is disputed, with authors variously suggesting Megacamelus, Procamelus, and Megatylopus as likely candidates.[5] During the latest Miocene around 6 million years ago, the genus spread to Eurasia across the Bering land bridge, arriving in Spain just prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis at approximately 6 Ma,[6] with the earliest fossils in Africa around the Miocene-Pliocene boundary, approximately 5.3 million years ago,[7] though they may have dispersed into the region somewhat earlier.[8] Paracamelus is the presumed ancestor of modern Camelus.[9][10] Camelus is distinguished from Paracamelus by the loss of the lower third premolar.[11] 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.[5][12]
References
edit- ^ Schlosser, Max (1903). "Die fossilen Säugethiere Chinas nebst einer Odontographie der recenten Antilopen". Abhandlungen der Mathematisch-Physikalischen Klasse der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 22 (1): 95–97; Pl. 9, Fig. 14, 26
{{cite journal}}: External link in|postscript= - ^ Logvynenko, V. M. (2001). "Paracamels minor (Camelidae, Tylopoda) — A New Camelid Species from the Middle Pliocene of Ukraine" (PDF). Vestnik Zoologii. 35 (1): 39–42.
- ^ R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
- ^ 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. 47 (3): 483–500. doi:10.1007/s41513-020-00144-x. ISSN 1698-6180.
- ^ a b 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. 4 (1). doi:10.1038/ncomms2516. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 3615376. PMID 23462993.
- ^ Colombero, Simone; Bonelli, Edmondo; Pavia, Marco; Repetto, Giovanni; Carnevale, Giorgio (2016). "Paracamelus (Mammalia, Camelidae) remains from the late Messinian of Italy: insights into the last camels of western Europe". Historical Biology. 29 (4): 509–518. doi:10.1080/08912963.2016.1206539. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 132350588.
- ^ Likius, Andossa; Brunet, Michel; Geraads, Denis; Vignaud, Patrick (2003). "The oldest Camelidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) of Africa : new finds from the Mio-Pliocene boundary, Chad". Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 174 (2): 187–193. doi:10.2113/174.2.187. ISSN 0037-9409.
- ^ 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: 1–12. doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1423485. ISSN 0891-2963.
- ^ 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. 3866 (3866): 1–45. doi:10.1206/3866.1. ISSN 0003-0082.
- ^ Dong, Wei; Liu, Wen-Hui; Bai, Wei-Peng; Liu, Si-Zhao; Wang, Yuan; Liu, Jin-Yuan; Jin, Chang-Zhu (2024). "A skull of Early Pleistocene Paracamelus gigas (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from Luotuo Hill in Dalian, Northeast China". Vertebrata Palasiatica. 62 (1): 47–68. doi:10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.230616. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ 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. 28 (2): 359–370. doi:10.1007/s10914-019-09489-2. ISSN 1064-7554.
- ^ 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. 171: 48–57. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.06.031.
Further reading
edit- Titov, Vadim V.; Logvynenko, Vitaliy N. (2006). "Early Paracamelus (Mammalia, Tylopoda) in Eastern Europe". Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia. A: Vertebrata. 49 (1–2): 163–178. doi:10.3409/000000006783995544.
- Kostopoulos, Dimitris S.; Sen, Sevket (1999). "Late Pliocene (Villafranchian) mammals from Sarikol Tepe, Ankara, Turkey". Mitteilungen der Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und historische Geologie. 39: 187–192.
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