Habitat conditions for Camelus knoblochi and factors in its extinction

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.10.022

Quaternary International

Volume 179, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 120-125

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2007.10.022 Get rights and content

Abstract

The largest Eurasian camel Camelus knoblochi is known from Middle Pleistocene deposits of the Volga River Region and new material is described here. Its range included steppe and forest–steppe landscapes from Eastern Europe to the Transbaikalia in the Middle Pleistocene and from the Urals to northeastern China in the Late Pleistocene. The extinction of this species was related to climatic aridization and change of plant communities.

Introduction

Extended sandy and clayey beaches of the Volga River (from Volgograd to Saratov) are long known for numerous discoveries of large animal bones by local people (Poliakov, 1880; Cherskiy, 1888; Yakovlev, 1928). Considerable material of Canis lupus, Mammuthus chosaricus, Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis, Elasmotherium sibiricum, Bison priscus longicornis, Saiga tatarica, Megaloceros giganteus, Cervus elaphus from this area is preserved in museums and institutions of Russia and Kazakhstan (Pavlowa, 1926, Pavlowa, 1931, Pawlova, 1933; Buinovskiy and Haveson, 1953; Gromova, 1965; Kozhamkulova, 1981, Kozhamkulova, 1986; Khromov et al., 2001a, Khromov et al., 2001b; Titov, 2006). Remains of a large camel are common among these fossils. Russian archaeologist and traveler Poliakov (1880) proposed to describe this large camel as Camelus volgensis based on the material found along the left bank of the middle reaches of Volga River on Khryazhevskaya and Krasnovidovskaya sandbars. However, this paper was never published. On the basis of a skull from the site Luchka in the Lower Volga Region, the new taxon Camelus knoblochi was characterized (Nehring, 1901). It was named in honor of Alexander Knobloch, the factory-owner from the town of Sarepta. He took a great interest in fossils and sent the skull with the lower jaw of this camel (presently the holotype) to the Zoological museum of St. Petersburg in 1880.

At present, most remains of fossil camels in the Volga Valley originate from the Middle Pleistocene Singil and Khazar alluvial deposits that are widespread in this region. These deposits are exposed in left bank cliffs in all places where animal remains were found.

Remains of C. knoblochi 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 China (Fig. 1).

Section snippets

Systematic paleontology

Suborder selenodontia

Infraorder Tylopoda

Family Camelidae Gray, 1821

Subfamily Camelinae Gray, 1821

Tribe Camelini Gray, 1821

Genus Camelus L.

Camelus knoblochi Nehring (1901)

Holotype: incomplete skull with lower jaw, Zoological museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), ZIN 8678.

Type locality: Luchka (nowadays Svetliy Yar town), Lower Volga Region, Russia.

Age of the type locality: Middle Pleistocene.

Material: 10 complete and fragmentary skulls, nine lower jaws, separate postcranial bones from several

Stratigraphy, paleobiogeography and paleoecology

Neither the area nor time of origin of C. knoblochi is known at present. According to widespread opinion, Central Asia was the territory of the origin and dispersal of Camelus. Remains of C. knoblochi were found in the Early Middle Pleistocene Lakhuti 2 locality in Tajikistan (Vangengeim et al., 1988). Some isolated records of large camels with unclear stratigraphic position tentatively indicate the presence of this species in the Early Middle Pleistocene Tiraspol faunistic complex of Eastern

Conclusions

C. knoblochi was the largest Eurasian camel. Its stratigraphical range 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 39° to 54°N between the Urals and northeastern China.

Palynological data and paleozoological contexts indicate steppe and

Acknowledgments

I thank I.E. Lev (Rostov-on-Don Regional museum), N.P. Kalmykov (Southern Scientific Centre RAS, Rostov-on-Don) and employees of the Zoological Institute RAS and Central scientific Geological Museum (TsNIGR), VSEGEI (St. Petersburg) for the opportunity to work with the fossil material. I thank A.S. Tesakov and Dr. L. Flynn for improving the English and remarks on the subject matter of the paper. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for support of science and by RFBR project no.

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Cited by (18)

Images of camels on a mammoth tusk from West Siberia

2020, Archaeological Research in Asia

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There are two species of two-humped camel that can be identified based on bone remains from the Late Pleistocene in northern Eurasia: Camelus knoblochi and Camelus bactrianus. C. knoblochi was the largest type of camel in Eurasia that lived in the steppes and forest-steppes from eastern Europe to the north-east of China during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (Titov, 2008). This type had the largest distribution and population in the Late Middle Pleistocene.

This study introduces the engravings on a mammoth tusk from the lower reaches of the Tom River in West Siberia. The tusk was found in 1988 during construction works and was later transferred to the Tomsk State University, but it remained almost unknown to specialists until now. Radiocarbon dating by AMS reported the age of the tusk as 13,100–13,005 Сal BP (95% confidence level). The surface of the tusk is engraved with images of two-humped camels arranged in two pairs. In addition, arrows and wounds within the contours of the animals can be seen. The comparative analysis of the stylistic features of the camel figures shows that they correspond to the age of the tusk itself, making them, at present, the oldest camel images in Asia. The discovery of the engravings in this region is consistent with the theory of mobile population groups moving to western Siberia from the periglacial steppe to the south in the Late Upper Paleolithic.
Pleistocene camelids from the Syrian Desert: The diversity in El Kowm

2015, Anthropologie (France)

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The clearest might be that found in metapodial condyles measurements. However, the North African sample assigned to C. thomasi includes postcranial material (Pomel, 1893) that differs markedly from the Russian species (Titov, 2008). The Syrian material can be expected to be closer to the Algerian sample than to the Russian one.

The family Camelidae has been present in Eurasia since the latest Miocene, and several species are recognized, but their evolution is poorly known. The region of El Kowm, central Syria, includes several sites spanning the Early to Late Pleistocene and provides the only abundant fossil record of camelids in the Middle East. Our preliminary results show that several species are present over the sequence, revealing some surprising evolutionary trends.

La famille des Camelidae est connue en Eurasie depuis le Miocène ; plusieurs espèces ont été identifiées, mais leur évolution est mal connue. La région d’El Kowm, au centre de la Syrie, comprend plusieurs sites couvrant la totalité du Pléistocène. Il s’agit du seul ensemble au Moyen-Orient livrant en abondance des fossiles de camélidés. Nos résultats préliminaires montrent que plusieurs espèces sont présentes sur la séquence, révélant certaines tendances évolutives surprenantes.
Late Pleistocene mammalian fauna from Wulanmulan Paleolithic Site, Nei Mongol, China

2014, Quaternary International

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Abbreviations: M. upper molar; L. length; W. width. *Data sources: Luchka, Razdorskaya and Sengiley (Titov, 2008). Megaloceros (S.) ordosianus (Young), 1932

Discovered in 2010 with the construction of Landscape Park on the left bank of Wulanmulun River in Kangbashi District of Nei Mongol, Wulanmulun Paleolithic Site yielded large quantities of mammalian specimens during 2010–2012 rescue excavations. Identified fossil materials include Myospalax sp., Cricetulus sp., Microtus sp., Apodemus sp., Arvicola sp.?, Dipodidae gen. et sp. indet., Lepus sp., Mustelidae gen. et sp. indet., Coelodonta antiquitatis, Equus przewalskii, Camelus cf. C. knoblochi Megaloceros ordosianus and Gazella sp. The fauna analyses show that the paleoenvironment in Wulanmulun Site area might have been a mixture or mosaic of grassland and forest with some small streams and swamps. The fluctuation of annual temperature might have been high, with the winter very cold and the summer relatively warm. The Wulanmulun fauna is in the same paleozoogeographic sub-province as Baotou, Shiyu, Salawusu and Loufangzi faunas, different from that of the Xiaogushan and Yanjiagang faunas of Northeast China, and more different from that of the Dantu fauna of East China. The Wulanmulun area was suitable for the habitation of the late Paleolithic humans, and Wulanmulun fauna were their main hunting prey.
Extinction chronology of the woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis in the context of late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in northern Eurasia

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There are a few megafaunal species where available information is inadequate to infer time of extinction. According to Titov (2008), in the Late Pleistocene Camelus knoblochi (a large extinct camel) ranged from the Urals to north-eastern China. No stratigraphic details or radiocarbon dates are available to estimate when it became extinct.

Megafaunal extinctions in northern Eurasia (excluding Mediterranean islands) since the Last Interglacial claimed about 37% of species with body weights >44 kg. Here we review the dating evidence for the timings of these extinctions, which were staggered over tens of millennia. Moreover, individual species disappeared at different times in different geographical areas. For example, cave bear probably disappeared ca. 30.5–28.5 ka, at approximately the onset of GS-3 (beginning of ‘LGM’), whereas cave lion survived until the Lateglacial ca 14 ka. Others survived into the Holocene: woolly mammoth until ca 10.7 ka in the New Siberian Islands and ca 4 ka on Wrangel Island, giant deer to at least 7.7 ka in western Siberia and European Russia. It is evident that climatic and vegetational changes had major impacts on species' ranges, and moreover the contrasting chronologies and geographical range contractions are consistent with environmental drivers relating to their differing ecologies. However, the possible role of humans in this process has still to be satisfactorily explored.

We present a detailed review of the radiocarbon record and extinction chronology of an exclusively northern Eurasian species, the woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis, an animal adapted to feeding on low-growing herbaceous vegetation and a dry climate with minimal snowfall. During the Last Glacial the overall (time-averaged) range of C. antiquitatis extended across most of northern Eurasia, but the species failed to reach North America. On the basis of 233 ultrafiltered AMS radiocarbon dates, together with 50 others which pass our auditing criteria, we reconstruct a detailed chronology for this species. C. antiquitatis was widespread over most of the time span covered by radiocarbon dating, but from ca 35 ka (calibrated) it apparently contracted towards the east, culminating in its probable extinction ca 14 ka, with the latest dates from north-eastern Siberia. It disappeared from Britain, at the western, more oceanic end of its range, at ca 35 ka BP apparently corresponding with the onset of Interstadial GI-7. In north-eastern Siberia C. antiquitatis survived through much of GI-1d,e and probably went extinct at or close to the onset of GI-1c (Allerød) ca 13.9 ka BP. Its final extinction probably relates to Lateglacial interstadial warming and increased precipitation (especially snowfall) accompanied by the replacement of low-growing herbaceous vegetation by shrubs and trees. The survival of woolly rhinoceros in north-eastern Siberia when it had disappeared further west may relate to the later persistence of open vegetation in that region. The timing of its final extinction could relate to the fact that the Lateglacial interstadial was significantly warmer than any other event in the previous 50 millennia.

There are indications of gaps in the pattern of dates in certain areas that may have significance in terms of temporary absences of C. antiquitatis, some of which may correspond to interstadial phases. The radiocarbon record of C. antiquitatis is still poor in some potentially important areas, and further work will corroborate or reject the hypotheses of regional ‘gaps’ in occurrence, and might perhaps reveal currently unsuspected later survival.
Large-scale application of palaeoproteomics (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry; ZooMS) in two Palaeolithic faunal assemblages from China

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REVISION OF THE LATE CENOZOIC CAMELIDS FROM THE YUSHE BASIN, SHANXI, WITH COMMENTS ON CHINESE FOSSIL CAMELS

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Quaternary International

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Systematic paleontology

Stratigraphy, paleobiogeography and paleoecology

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

References (24)

Family Camelidae

Camels of Northern Black Sea Region and Transcaucasus

The first sample of Pleistocene camel from Siberia

Bulletin of Commission for Researching of the Quaternary

The geological research of Siberian post road from lake Baikal to eastern slope of Ural ridge

Proceedings of Imperial Academy of science

Main results of micropaleobotanical studying of Russian Plain Quaternary deposits

Materials of Quaternary of the USSR

The Short Review of European Quaternary Mammals

Tertiary camels of the Eastern Hemisphere (genus Paracamelus)

Proceedings of Paleontological Institute

The Evolution of Lake Baikal Basin Ecosystems in Cenozoic

Materials by Large Quaternary Mammals From Saratov Regional Museum

Late Cenozoic Ungulate Animals of Kazakhstan

The Late Cenozoic two-humpted (bactrian) camels of Asia

Quartärpaläontologie

Cited by (18)

Images of camels on a mammoth tusk from West Siberia

Pleistocene camelids from the Syrian Desert: The diversity in El Kowm

Late Pleistocene mammalian fauna from Wulanmulan Paleolithic Site, Nei Mongol, China

Extinction chronology of the woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis in the context of late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in northern Eurasia

Large-scale application of palaeoproteomics (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry; ZooMS) in two Palaeolithic faunal assemblages from China

REVISION OF THE LATE CENOZOIC CAMELIDS FROM THE YUSHE BASIN, SHANXI, WITH COMMENTS ON CHINESE FOSSIL CAMELS