Hemiauchenia

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Hemiauchenia
Temporal range: Mid MioceneLate Pleistocene
c. 10.3 – 0.012  Ma
Hemiauchenia macrocephala FLMNH.jpg
Reconstructed H. macrocephala skeleton, Florida Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Camelidae
Tribe: Lamini
Genus: Hemiauchenia
Gervais & Ameghino, 1880
Species
  • H. macrocephala(Cope, 1893)
  • H. minima(Leidy, 1886)
  • H. blancoensis(Meade,1945)
  • H. vera(Matthew, 1909)
  • H. paradoxa (Gervais & Ameghino, 1880)
  • H. seymourensis
  • H. edensis
  • H. guanajuatensis
  • H. mirim Greco et al., 2022
Synonyms

TanupolamaStock 1928HolomeniscusCope 1884

Hemiauchenia [1] is a genus of lamine camelids that evolved in North America in the Miocene period about 10 million years ago. This genus diversified and entered South America in the Late Pliocene about three to two million years ago, as part of the Great American Biotic Interchange. The genus became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene. The monophyly of the genus has been considered questionable, with phylogenetic analyses finding the genus to paraphyletic or polyphyletic, with some species suggested to be more closely related to living lamines (llamas and relatives) than to other Hemiauchenia species. [2] [3]

Contents

This genus gave rise to the genus Lama , of which modern lamines belong to.

Broad features of genus Hemiauchenia

The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek : ἡμι- (hēmi-, "half"-) [4] and αὐχήν (auchēn, "neck"). [5] [nb 1] Species are specified using Latin adjectives or Latinised names from other languages.

North American fossils

Restoration of Hemiauchenia (right) and other animals of the Rattlesnake Formation fleeing a volcanic eruption Rattlesnake Formation Mural.jpg
Restoration of Hemiauchenia (right) and other animals of the Rattlesnake Formation fleeing a volcanic eruption

Remains of these species have been found in assorted locations around North America, including Florida, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Arizona, Mexico, California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington. [7] [8]

The "large-headed llama", H. macrocephala, was widely distributed in North and Central America, with H. vera being known from the western United States and northern Mexico. H. minima has been found in Florida, and H. guanajuatensis in Mexico. [9]

H. macrocephala gave rise to modern lamines (guanacos, vicuñas, and their domesticated forms) when a population migrated southward towards South America. [10] [11] [12]

South American fossils

Fossil skull of the type species, H. paradoxa Hemiauchenia paradoxa.png
Fossil skull of the type species, H. paradoxa

Fossils of Hemiauchenia in South America are restricted to the Pleistocene and have been found in the Luján and Agua Blanca Formations of Buenos Aires Province and Córdoba Province, Argentina, the Tarija Formation of Bolivia, Pilauco of Osorno, Los Lagos, Chile and Paraíba, Ceará, and the Touro Passo Formation of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. [13] Hemiauchenia paradoxa is suggested to have been a browser. [14]

Distinguishing characteristics of members of Hemiauchenia

H. vera

H. blancoensis

H. macrocephala

Skull of H. macrocephala Hemiauchenia macrocephala skull.png
Skull of H. macrocephala

Thought to have been browsers [15] and mixed feeders. [16] Suggested to be less closely related to modern Lama and Vicugna than H. paradoxa is. [3]

Native to the southern United States, spanning from California to Florida, [17] and as far north as Nebraska. [16] Also present in Mexico. [15]

H. minima

Right hind limb of H. minima, Florida Museum of Natural History Hemiauchenia minima limb FLMNH.jpg
Right hind limb of H. minima, Florida Museum of Natural History

Other species

Toe bone of H. edensis, Florida Museum of Natural History Hemiauchenia edensis toe bone FLMNH.jpg
Toe bone of H. edensis, Florida Museum of Natural History

Also, a few lesser known species, such as H. paradoxa, H. seymourensis, H. edensis and H. guanajuatensis, have been found. Depending on which source is consulted, these may or may not be considered legitimate taxa.[ citation needed ]

Classification history

Prior to 1974, fossil specimens now thought to be Hemiauchenia were classified as Holomeniscus, Lama , and Tanupolama, until S. David Webb proposed that these North and South American fossil species were part of a single genus. [18] This has been accepted by all subsequent researchers, although in 2013, Carolina Saldanha Scherer questioned the inclusion of a certain North American species and suggested that Hemiauchenia is paraphyletic. [2]

Diet

Over the Pliocene and Pleistocene, Hemiauchenia was an intermediate feeder that preferred browsing with a hypsodont dentition. [19] According to δ13C analyses of H. paradoxa teeth from the Touro Passo and Santa Vitória Formations of Brazil, H. paradoxa was primarily a grazer of C3 grasses. [20]

See also

Notes

  1. These are used to form a feminine noun to mean "half-neckedness" or "half-carrying the neck"; cf. ὑψηλαυχενία, (hypsēlauchenía, "carrying the neck high"). [6]

References

  1. "Paleobiology Database - Hemiauchenia basic info". Archived from the original on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  2. 1 2 Scherer, Carolina Saldanha (March 2013). "The Camelidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from the Quaternary of South America: Cladistic and Biogeographic Hypotheses" . Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 20 (1): 45–56. doi:10.1007/s10914-012-9203-4. ISSN   1064-7554.
  3. 1 2 Lynch, Sinéad; Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R.; Balcarcel, Ana (December 2020). "Description of a fossil camelid from the Pleistocene of Argentina, and a cladistic analysis of the Camelinae". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology . 139 (1): 5. Bibcode:2020SwJP..139....8L. doi: 10.1186/s13358-020-00208-6 . ISSN   1664-2376. PMC   7590954 . PMID   33133011.
  4. ἡμι- . Liddell, Henry George ; Scott, Robert ; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
  5. αὐχήν . Liddell, Henry George ; Scott, Robert ; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
  6. ὑψηλαυχενία. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
  7. Hulbert Jr., Richard C.; Valdes, Natali (June 6, 2015). "Hemiauchenia macrocephala". Florida Museum. Florida Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  8. Heckert, Andrew B. Ph D. "Pliocene (latest Hemphillian and Blancan) vertebrate fossils from the Mangas Basin, southwestern New Mexico". libres.uncg.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  9. Ruez, D. R. (2005-09-30). "Earliest Record of Palaeolama (Mammalia, Camelidae) with Comments on "Palaeolama" guanajuatensis". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 25 (3). Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: 741–744. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0741:eropmc]2.0.co;2. JSTOR   4524496. S2CID   86522528.
  10. Meachen, Julie A. (2005-12-31). "A New Species of Hemiauchenia (Artiodactyla, Camelidae) from the Late Blancan of Florida". Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History. 45 (4). University Press of Florida: 435–448. doi:10.58782/flmnh.stwk6834.
  11. Cowie, Helen (2017-05-15). Llama. Reaktion Books. p. 10. ISBN   978-1-78023-786-2.
  12. Defler, Thomas (2018-12-19). History of Terrestrial Mammals in South America: How South American Mammalian Fauna Changed from the Mesozoic to Recent Times. Springer. pp. 266–267. ISBN   978-3-319-98449-0.
  13. Hemiauchenia at Fossilworks.org
  14. Lopes, Renato Pereira; Scherer, Carolina Saldanha; Pereira, Jamil Corrêa; Dillenburg, Sérgio Rebello (July 2023). "Paleoenvironmental changes in the Brazilian Pampa based on carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis of Pleistocene camelid tooth enamel" . Journal of Quaternary Science. 38 (5): 702–718. Bibcode:2023JQS....38..702L. doi:10.1002/jqs.3502. ISSN   0267-8179.
  15. 1 2 Marín-Leyva, Alejandro Hiram; Delgado-García, Sabrina; García-Zepeda, María Luisa; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquín; López-García, J. Ramón; Plata-Ramírez, Ramón Adrián; Meléndez-Herrera, Esperanza (2023-06-03). "Environmental inferences based on the dietary ecology of camelids from west-central Mexico during the Late Pleistocene" . Historical Biology. 35 (6): 1011–1027. Bibcode:2023HBio...35.1011M. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2073822. ISSN   0891-2963.
  16. 1 2 Semprebon, Gina M.; Rivals, Florent (September 2010). "Trends in the paleodietary habits of fossil camels from the Tertiary and Quaternary of North America" . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 295 (1–2): 131–145. Bibcode:2010PPP...295..131S. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.05.033.
  17. Grayson, D. K. 1994. The extinct Late Pleistocene mammals of the Great Basin. Pages 55–85 in Natural history of the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin ( K. T. Harper, J. L. ST. Clair, K. H. Thorne, and W. M. Hess, editors). University Press of Colorado, Niwot.
  18. "Hemiauchenia macrocephala". University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  19. Feranec, Robert S. (Spring 2003). "Stable isotopes, hypsodonty, and the paleodiet of Hemiauchenia (Mammalia: Camelidae): a morphological specialization creating ecological generalization" . Paleobiology . 29 (2): 230–242. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2003)029<0230:SIHATP>2.0.CO;2. ISSN   0094-8373 . Retrieved 6 May 2024 via Cambridge Core.
  20. Carrasco, Thayara S.; Scherer, Carolina S.; Ribeiro, Ana Maria; Buchmann, Francisco S. (12 April 2022). "Paleodiet of Lamini camelids (Mammalia: Artiodactyla) from the Pleistocene of southern Brazil: insights from stable isotope analysis (δ 13 C, δ 18 O)" . Paleobiology . 48 (3): 513–526. Bibcode:2022Pbio...48..513C. doi:10.1017/pab.2022.10. ISSN   0094-8373 . Retrieved 5 May 2024 via Cambridge Core.

Further reading