camel are n’t typically associated with northern climates , but a recent discovery of 3.5 million - year - old fogy by Canadian paleontologist Natalia Rybczynski suggest that this is precisely where they came from . The finding was made on Nunavut ’s Ellesmere Island , the most northerly part of Canada , and an area that was much more temperate back during the mid - Pliocene epoch . But it was cold enough , say the researcher , to help the camels evolve their humps — an adaptation that would finally essay utile in a vastly different ecological setting .
Analysis of the bones show that the giant camel is likely a distant congeneric of the advanced dromedary camel , the species known for its one bump . And as its name suggests , the giant camel was a rather great beast . front at the dodo grounds , Rybczynski and her team figure it was about 9 foot ( 2.7 cadence ) tall at the shoulder , which is 30 % larger than today ’s camel . And it librate close to 2,000 pounds ( 900 kg ) .
Millions of year ago , Ellsmere Island feature a boreal forest with temperatures ranging anywhere from 57 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit ( 14 to 22 Celsius ) . It was a quick stop that antedate the onset of the Quaternary glaciations . There was plenty for the camel to feed back then , include lots of grass and leafage . Today , camels are regarded a desert domicile animals , but during the mid - Pliocene they range through the Arctic forest .
And fascinatingly , Rybczynski theorizes that the hump was already an of import feature of the camel even back then . In her study , she writes :
Their iconic hump(s ) , moderate fat , also may have been adaptative . As seen in high - latitude ungulates today , fatty deposits could have been critically important for allowing population to subsist and reproduce in harsh climates characterized by 6 - calendar month farseeing , cold , winter .
Indeed , given just how far up northwards they were , the winters would have been tenacious and coarse — lasting for half the year and featuring 24 hour of duskiness . These camels , for pull through , would have likely drop most of their weight while feed off their hump ’s juicy stockpile .
The camel population eventually dispersed across the Bering Strait during the cold winters by using Arctic sea deoxyephedrine , where they resettled in Asia and adapted to an altogether unlike kind of life .
you may read theentire studyat Nature .
EvolutionPaleontologyScience
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