Camelus knoblochi

Camelus knoblochi Temporal range: Mid - Late Pleistocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Camelidae
Genus:	Camelus
Species:	†C. knoblochi
Binomial name
†Camelus knoblochi (Poliakov,1880)

Camelus knoblochi is an extinct species of camel from the Pleistocene. Remains are known from several localities in the south of Eastern Europe (northern Caucasus, the Sea of Azov, Caspian, Middle and Lower Volga regions), in the east and west of northern Kazakhstan, as well as in Tajikistan, and the Altai Mountains, and in the south of western Siberia, southern and western Transbaikalia, and northern and northeastern China.^[1]

Description[]

Camelus knoblochi was one of larger species of Old World camels of the Pleistocene, standing over 3 m (9.8 ft) tall and 1 metric ton (1.1 short tons) in weight while the recently described Camelus moreli might have been either comparable in size or taller.^[2][3]

Paleoecology[]

The stratigraphical range of C. knoblochi includes most of the Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene. This species had its maximum distribution and highest abundance in the Late Middle Pleistocene, when its range extended from Eastern Europe to Transbaikalia. In the Late Pleistocene, C. knoblochi inhabited a considerable part of Asia from 391 to 541N between the Urals and northeastern China.

Palynological data and paleozoological contexts indicate that C. knoblochi lived in moist steppe and forest–steppe environments and fed mainly on grassy vegetation, with sprigs and leaves also included. Their extinction was likely caused by climatic aridization during the Late Pleistocene accompanied by the drastic change of plant communities. In this climatic situation, camels were displaced to relatively extreme conditions of dry steppe and semi-deserts because of high competition with more efficient phyllophagous and herbivorous animals such as large deer and ruminants. C. knoblochi was eventually rendered extinct through competition with the living Bactrian camel, which is better adapted to severe environments and to feeding on less nutritious vegetation.^[4]

References[]