The High Arctic camel, from the mid-

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

related to the fossil

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Paracamelus ''Paracamelus'' is an extinct genus of camel in the family Camelidae. It originated in North America during the Middle Miocene but crossed the Beringian land bridge into Eurasia during the Late Miocene, approximately 7.5–6.5 million years ...

'' from which modern camels arose. It is also related to the extinct Ice Age Yukon giant camel. Collagen-containing fossils were found in 2006 near

Strathcona Fiord Strathcona Fiord is a fiord on the west central coast of Ellesmere Island, the most northern island within the Arctic Archipelago, Nunavut, Canada. Geography Strathcona Fiord is a southern tributary of Bay Fiord. The landscape in the region is fr ...

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

, Canada. The High Arctic camel lived at least 3.4 million years ago during a warmer period in a

boreal Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...

-type forest environment.

Fossil discovery

The remains of a High Arctic camel were discovered over several field seasons (2006-2010) in the

area of

, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, at about 78°N latitude. About 30 fragments were collected from the Fyles Leaf Bed site and assembled, forming part of a right

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

. The presence of a fibular notch at the distal end of the bone suggests the bone was from an

artiodactyl The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing poster ...

hooved mammal (e.g. cows, deer, camels). Size estimates are consistent with camels, as they were the largest artiodactyls in North America at the time. This is the first evidence of camels in the High Arctic and a new

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

for the mammal assemblage of the Pliocene High Arctic.

Collagen fingerprinting

Collagen fingerprinting showed the fragmentary fossil remains were from a camel and involved comparison of the ancient collagen with that of 37 modern mammal species, as well as the Pleistocene-Aged giant Yukon camel (tentatively referred to the genus ''Paracamelus''). The High Arctic camel was most similar to the one-humped

Dromedary The dromedary (''Camelus dromedarius'' or ;), also known as the dromedary camel, Arabian camel, or one-humped camel, is a large even-toed ungulate, of the genus ''Camelus'', with one hump on its back. It is the tallest of the three species of ...

camel and the Yukon giant camel.

Age and paleoenvironment

The estimated age of the camel fossil was obtained using a terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) burial dating technique, which was applied to quartz sand containing the fossils. These deposits are at least 3.4 million years old and equivalent in age to the mammal fossil record in the nearby Beaver Pond fossil site. The deposits hosting the camel remains correlate to the Beaufort Formation, which was emplaced prior the onset of extensive North American glaciation at ~2.6 Ma. The results showed that the High Arctic camel was most similar to the one-humped

camel and the Yukon giant camel. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction shows that in the mid-Pliocene the camel would have been living in a landscape that supported a boreal-type forest, dominated by larch trees. At the time, global temperatures are estimated to have been 2 to 3 degrees warmer than today, whereas locally, in the Strathcona Fiord area, temperatures would have been 14 – 22 °C warmer. Means annual temperature would have been around freezing, with cold and snowy winters.

References

External links

{{portal, Paleontology
Canadian Museum of Nature media site
Prehistoric camelids Pliocene even-toed ungulates Pleistocene even-toed ungulates Pliocene first appearances Pleistocene extinctions Prehistoric mammals of North America Arctic land animals Extinct animals of Canada Ellesmere Island Undescribed vertebrate species