A new discovery by a team of researchers suggests that camels used to roam the Arctic more than 3.5 million years ago.
Researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature have found evidence that suggests camels roamed and fought the subfreezing weather condition of the Arctic more than 3.5 million years ago. However, those camels were 30 percent larger than the camels found in current times.
Thirty bone fragments of the larger species of camel were discovered on Canada's Ellesmere Island, which is believed to be the furthest north the species has ever been discovered to reside in. This led to researchers concluding that a species of giant camels that are now extinct lived in Canada's High Arctic.
"This is an important discovery because it provides the first evidence of camels living in the High Arctic region," said Natalia Rybczynski, a vertebrate paleontologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature. "It extends the previous range of camels in North America northward by about 1200 km, and suggests that the lineage that gave rise to modern camels may have been originally adapted to living in an Arctic forest environment," Rybczynski said in a statement.
What made the discovery of these fragments even more interesting was the fact that they were mummified, not fossilized. So despite their age, the pieces preserved tiny fragments of collagen within them, a common type of protein found in bones.
The proteins found in the bones not only clarified they belonged to camels but also provided evidence that the camel bore a close resemblance to the modern version of the Yukon camel.
"We now have a new fossil record to better understand camel evolution, since our research shows that the Paracamelus lineage inhabited northern North America for millions of years, and the simplest explanation for this pattern would be that Paracamelus originated there," Rybczynski said. "So perhaps some specializations seen in modern camels, such as their wide flat feet, large eyes and humps for fat may be adaptations derived from living in a polar environment."
