Posted on 11/01/2013 7:33:08 AM PDT by Phillyred
High Arctic camels, like those shown in this illustration, lived on Ellesmere Island during the Pliocene warm period about 3.5 million years ago. (Image: Julius Csotonyi) Camels are the poster animals for the desert, but researchers now have evidence that these shaggy beasts once lived in the Canadian High Arctic.
The fossil remains of a 3.5-million-year-old camel were found on Ellesmere Island in Canada's northernmost territory, Nunavut. The camel was about 30 percent bigger than modern camels and was identified using a technique called collagen fingerprinting. The finding, detailed in March 5 in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that modern camels stemmed from giant relatives that lived in a forested Arctic that was somewhat warmer than today.
"It's the first evidence that camels were ever there," lead study author and paleobiologist Natalia Rybczynski of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa told LiveScience."It is surprising because usually we associate camels with arid and semi-arid habitats."
Camels, which belong to the Camelus genus, originated in North America during the Eocene period about 45 million years ago, and later crossed to Eurasia over the Bering Isthmus, a landbridge between Alaska and Russia. Their closest relatives are llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos.[See Images of the Arctic Camel and Fossils]
The researchers found about 30 pieces of bone that were part of a camel's tibia, or shinbone. The fossil's location moves the known range of North American camels northward by about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers).
The camel's identity and age were determined via collagen fingerprinting, a technique that measures the amount of a bone protein called Type I collagen. Different mammals have characteristic amounts of this protein, which survives longer than many other biological molecules in the body.
The team dated the fossil to roughly 3.5 million years ago, a period known as the mid-Pliocene warm period. The global temperature was about 3.5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 3 degrees Celsius) warmer than today, Rybczynski said, and about 33 degrees F (18 degrees C) warmer where the camel was found, with temperatures averaging around 30 degrees F (minus 1.4 degree C). The Canadian High Arctic was forested then.
The fossil specimen closely resembles modern dromedary camels, based on the fingerprinting, but was about a third larger in size. It also bears similarity to the giant Yukon camels that lived about 1,240 miles (2,000 km) away from the site where the ancient camel bones were discovered.
The researchers plan to continue searching for camel remains in the High Arctic. "We hope to find more," Rybczynski said.
This must be our signal that if we can lick global warming, we’ll get Sharia law like we all want. I knew there was a tie-in.
Just shoot me now.
Of course, if there was a worldwide flood, carcasses would have been “debri’d” everywhere...
Was there Arab cavemen who would set themselves on fire then run into a crowd of normal cavemen and shout “Allah Flintstones!”?
So it was not a desert until muzzies moved in.
I’m sure you’ve heard the statement which is true as well as witty,
That a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.
Alan Sherman
They became extinct on a Wednesday.
“High Arctic camels”
Must have all gone down to Seattle first to smoke some.
The existence of giant camels also proves that ARABS invented the stepladder!
They were fingerprinting camels? Those stinkin’ camels was out robbing banks again! Camels.....criminals of the animal world.
WHAT.....! camels caused global warming.....!
If.
That’s nothing.
We’ve got giant slugs roaming the White House, walking vermin roaming the houses of congress, and hurl spewing amoeba inhabiting MSM studios.
If.
I’d walk a mile for a Camel...
Move the Arab terrorists up there. They will enjoy the supersized camels and will be too far away to threaten Christians , Jews, hindus. Blacks, Chinese, philipinos, or anyone else any more. .
If there really was a worldwide flood,
what would we find?
Millions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.
Too bad we don’t see evidence like that... :=)
(sigh!) so much camle-phobia on display here...;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
