Paracamelus
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Early Pleistocene (descendant taxon Camelus survives to present)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
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
Species
  • P. aguirrei Morales, 1984
  • P. alexejevi Khavesson, 1950
  • P. alutensis Stefanescu, 1895
  • P. gigas Schlosser, 1903
  • P. khersonensis Pavlow, 1903
  • P. longipes Aubekerova, 1974
  • P. minor Logvynenko, 2001[2]
  • P. praebactrianus Orlov, 1927
  • P. trofimovi Sharapov, 1986

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, approximately 7.5–6.5  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.[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 Late Miocene of Spain.[4]

Evolutionary history

The closest relative of Paracamelus is disputed, with authors variously suggesting Megacamelus, Procamelus, and Megatylopus as likely candidates.[5] During the late Miocene the genus spread to Eurasia across the Bering land bridge, arriving in Spain and Italy 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 made have dispesed into the region somewhat earlier.[8] Paracamelus is the presumed ancestor of modern Camelus.[9] Camelus is distinguished from Paracamelus by the loss of the lower third premolar.[10] A population belonging or closely related to Paracamelus remained in northern North America, which survived into the Pliocene, with remains known from Ellesmere Island in the Arctic circle, 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][11]

References

  1. ^ 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= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.

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