Camel Fossil Found in Arctic

During this time, camel synonymous with desert animal. However, who would have thought, in the ancient times of about 3.5 million years ago, the camel also live in the highland forests in the cold Arctic, Canada.

Illustration of the High Arctic camel on Ellesmere Island during the Pliocene warm period, about three and a half million years ago. (Picture from: http://news.nationalpost.com/)

The research team, led by the Canadian Museum of Nature has identified the first evidence of an extinct giant camel in the highlands of the Arctic, Canada. The discovery was based on the 30 fragments of fossilized leg bones were found on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. It is the most southerly discovery of fossil camels, whose ancestors are known from North America about 45 million years ago.

Close-up of a fragment of the High Arctic camel fossil lying on the ground at the Fyles Leaf Bed site in 2008. (Picture from: http://news.nationalpost.com/)

Fossils obtained in the excavations conducted in 2006, 2008, and 2010, it is estimated 3.5 million years old, from the mid-Pliocene. Other fossils found at the site indicate that the plateau camels live in the Arctic boreal forest types were overgrown evergreen pine, the warm phase that hit the Earth.

Research conducted by Natalia Rybczynski and John Gosse from Dalhousie University, Halifax and Mike Buckley from the University of Manchester, England, was published in Nature Communications, the online journal on March 5, 2013.

"This is an important discovery because it provides the first evidence that camels living in the highlands Arctic," said Rybczynski, Vertebrate paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. "The animal camel expand deployment in North America up to 1.200 kilometers and indicates lineage that gave birth to modern camel originally adapted to live in the arctic forest."

The research team's camp at the Fyles Leaf Bed Site on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, near Strathcona Fiord during the 2008 field season. (Picture from: http://news.nationalpost.com/)

Camel bone was collected from a steep slope on the site Fyles Leaf Bed, area near Strathcona Fiord on Ellesmere Island. The research team had difficulty in identifying the camel bone. "When I first picked up the bone fragments, I had thought it was wood," said Rybczynski. "When he returned to camp, then I can make sure it's not just bones, but fossilized mammals." *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | NATIONAL POST | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 4163]

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