| Camelus knoblochi Temporal range: Mid - Late Pleistocene | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Camelidae |
| Genus: | Camelus |
| Species: | †C. knoblochi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Camelus knoblochi Nehring, 1901 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Camelus knoblochi is an extinct species of camel from the Pleistocene. One of the largest known camel species, its range spanned from Eastern Europe to Northern China.
The earliest remains of the species were collected from the Volga region of Russia. The species was first recognised as distinct species in an 1880 paper by I. S. Poliakov, but this was never published. The species was properly named in 1901 by A. Nehring, based on a fossil skull and lower jaws collected at the Luchka locality in the lower Volga, with the species name being after Alexander Knobloch, a factory owner in the nearby town of Sarepta interested in fossils who sent the skull in 1880 to the Zoological museum of St. Petersburg. [1]
Sequenced genomes of C. knoblochi suggests that while the species is distinct from the living Camelus ferus (wild Bactrian camel) at the nuclear genomic level, its mitochondrial genome diveristy is nested within that of the wild Bactrian camel, likely as a result of interbreeding with that species. While clearly a genetically distinct species in its own right which is more closely related to both the living wild Bactrian camel and the domestric Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) than to the dromedary, it forms an effective polytomy with the two living Bactrian camel species likely due to interbreeding between the species as well as the three species diverging from each other around the same time. Genome analysis indicates that all 3 species had been genetically distinct from each other for at least 400,000 years. [2] Cladogram after Yuan et al. 2024:
| Camelidae |
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The earliest fossils of C. knoblochi date to the Middle Pleistocene. [2]
Camelus knoblochi is one of the largest known species of genus Camelus, being considerably larger than the 3 living camel species. [1] C. knoblochi has been estimated to reach around 3 metres (9.8 ft) tall and over 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) in weight. [3] Its bones are more physically massive than those of living camels. The facial part of the skull is around 60% of the total length, somewhat elongate relative to other members of Camelus. The premaxillary bones are unfused. The metatarsals are slightly more elongate than the metacarpals on average. [1]
Remains of Camelusknoblochi span from Ukraine in the west, southwards into the Caucasus and Central Asia, and across the Urals into Mongolia and into Northeast China. During the Late Pleistocene, its distribution was restricted from the Urals eastwards. [1] [2] The habitat of the species was primarily steppe, and to a lesser degree, forest steppe, rather than the desert environments inhabited by living Bactrian camel species. [4] [1] During the Late Pleistocene in Mongolia and northern China, the species coexisted alongside other megafauna like the woolly rhinoceros, the giant deer Sinomegaceros ordosianus, Przewalski's horse, [5] Asiatic wild asses, and argali. [6]
Isotopic analysis suggests that the species was a browser on C3 vegetation. [2]
At Tsagaan Agui Cave in Mongolia, a metacarpal of the species, dating to around 59-44,000 years Before Present, bears fracture marks as a result of human butchery like to access the marrow cavity, with bite marks showing that it was subsequently gnawed on by cave hyaenas. Pleistocene cave art from Mongolia may also depict the species. [4]
The latest remains of the species are from the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, where the species became extinct around the Last Glacial Maximum (around 26-19,500 years ago). [4] Genetic analysis suggests that the species had already been in population decline for tens of thousands of years prior. [2] The species likely went extinct as a result of unfavourable environmental change, including the aridification of the Gobi Desert around this time. [4] [2]
A camel is an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide food and textiles. Camels are working animals especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. There are three surviving species of camel. The one-humped dromedary makes up 94% of the world's camel population, and the two-humped Bactrian camel makes up 6%. The wild Bactrian camel is a distinct species that is not ancestral to the domestic Bactrian camel, and is now critically endangered, with less than 1,000 individuals.
Przewalski's horse, also called the takhi, Mongolian wild horse or Dzungarian horse, is a rare and endangered horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. It is named after the Russian geographer and explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky. Once extinct in the wild, since the 1990s it has been reintroduced to its native habitat in Mongolia in the Khustain Nuruu National Park, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve, and Khomiin Tal, as well as several other locales in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. Camelids are even-toed ungulates classified in the order Artiodactyla, along with species including whales, pigs, deer, cattle, and antelopes.
The dromedary, 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.
The Bactrian camel, also known as the Mongolian camel, domestic Bactrian camel or two-humped camel, is a large camel native to the steppes of Central Asia. It has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped dromedary. Its population of 2 million exists mainly in the domesticated form. Their name comes from the ancient historical region of Bactria.
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Equus lambei, commonly known as the Yukon horse or Yukon wild horse, is an extinct species of the genus Equus. Equus lambei ranged across North America until approximately 10,000 years ago. Based on recent examinations of the mtDNA of Equus lambei remains, scientists have concluded that E. lambei was probably much like the extinct tarpan, also known as the Eurasian wild horse, and the living Przewalski's horse. A partial carcass of Equus lambei is on display at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon.
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John W. Olsen is an American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist specializing in the early Stone Age prehistory and Pleistocene paleoecology of eastern Eurasia. Olsen is Regents' Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Executive Director of the Je Tsongkhapa Endowment for Central and Inner Asian Archaeology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He is also a Leading Scientific Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch in Novosibirsk and Guest Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing where he is also Co-Director of the Zhoukoudian International Paleoanthropological Research Center. Olsen has been named a Distinguished Researcher of the Nihewan Research Center in Hebei Province, China. He is also a Foreign Expert affiliated with The Yak Museum in Lhasa, Tibet.
Tourism in Mongolia was extremely limited by the Socialist Government, but has been expanding following the 1990 Democratic Revolution in Mongolia in the wake of the collapse of the USSR and the Revolutions of 1989. Mongolia is a unique and relatively unexplored travel destination that offers a great combination of scenic natural features, a wide variety of untouched landscapes, nomadic life style and culture. Travel organizations in Mongolia date back to half a century ago, but the private sector-based tourism is barely twenty years old. Now Mongolia boasts 403 travel companies, 320 hotels, 647 resorts and tourist camps, all employing the graduates from over 56 educational establishments. Mongolia takes an active part in United Nations World Tourism Organization, of which it is a member party.
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features. Some studies have linked it as a possible ancestor to the dromedary, while others suggest it may be more closely related to the Bactrian camel of central Asia. However, a 2018 study revealed such assertions to be lacking any scientific basis, and C. thomasi appears to not be closely related to any living camel.