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Family in the extinct South American ungulate order Litopterna, that resembled various camelids
Macraucheniidae is a family in the extinct
South American ungulate
order
Litopterna , that resembled various
camelids . The reduced
nasal bones of their
skulls was originally suggested to have housed a small
proboscis , similar to that of the
saiga antelope .
[2] However, one study suggested that they were openings for large
moose -like
nostrils .
[3] Conversely, prehistoric
pictographs by indigenous people seems to depict animals interpreted as macraucheniids with trunks.
[4]
[5] Their
hooves were similar to those of
rhinoceroses today, with a simple ankle joint and three digits on each foot. Thus, they may have been capable of rapid directional change when running away from
predators , such as large
phorusrhacid terror birds,
sparassodont
metatherians , giant
short-faced
bears (
Arctotherium ) and
saber-toothed cats (
Smilodon ). Macraucheniids probably lived in large
herds to gain protection against these predators, as well as to facilitate finding mates for reproduction.
Skull of
Theosodon , a Miocene Macraucheniid
The family Macraucheniidae includes
genera such as
Theosodon ,
Xenorhinotherium , and
Macrauchenia . Macrauchenia is the best-known and most recent macraucheniid. It became extinct during the
Pleistocene
Epoch . It was one of the few litopterns to survive the ecological pressures of the
Great American Interchange between North and South America, which took place after the
Isthmus of Panama rose above sea level some 3 million years ago. It may instead have died out in the aftermath of the invasion of the Americas by human hunters. When Macrauchenia died out, so too did the Macraucheniidae and the entire litoptern order.
Skull of
Cramauchenia , an Early Miocene Cramaucheniinae
Sequencing of
mitochondrial DNA extracted from a Macrauchenia patachonica fossil from a cave in southern Chile indicates that Macrauchenia (and by inference, Litopterna) is the
sister group to
Perissodactyla , with an estimated divergence date of 66 million years ago.
[6] Analysis of
collagen sequences obtained from Macrauchenia and
Toxodon gave the same conclusion, adding
notoungulates to the sister group clade.
[7]
[8]
References
^ Dozo, M.T.; Vera, B. (2010).
"First skull and associated postcranial bones of Macraucheniidae (Mammalia, Litopterna) from the Deseadan SALMA (late Oligocene) of Cabeza Blanca (Chubut, Argentina)" . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 30 (6): 1818–1826.
doi :
10.1080/02724634.2010.521534 .
hdl :
11336/93665 .
S2CID
86291795 .
^ The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals . London: Marshall Editions. 1999. p. 248.
ISBN
978-1-84028-152-1 .
^
"Cranial characters associated with the proboscis postnatal-development in Tapirus (Perissodactyla: Tapiridae) and comparisons with other extant and fossil hoofed mammals | Request PDF" . ResearchGate . Retrieved 2019-04-11 .
^ Morcote-Ríos, Gaspar; Aceituno, Francisco Javier; Iriarte, José; Robinson, Mark; Chaparro-Cárdenas, Jeison L. (2020-04-29).
"Colonisation and early peopling of the Colombian Amazon during the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene: New evidence from La Serranía La Lindosa" . Quaternary International . 578 : 5–19.
doi :
10.1016/j.quaint.2020.04.026 .
ISSN
1040-6182 .
S2CID
219014558 .
^
"12,000-Year-Old Rock Drawings of Ice Age Megafauna Discovered in Colombian Amazon | Archaeology | Sci-News.com" . Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com . Retrieved 2020-12-04 .
^ Westbury, M.; Baleka, S.; Barlow, A.; Hartmann, S.; Paijmans, J. L. A.; Kramarz, A.; Forasiepi, A. M.; Bond, M.; Gelfo, J. N.; Reguero, M. A.; López-Mendoza, P.; Taglioretti, M.; Scaglia, F.; Rinderknecht, A.; Jones, W.; Mena, F.; Billet, G.; de Muizon, C.; Aguilar, J. L.; MacPhee, R. D. E.; Hofreiter, M. (2017-06-27).
"A mitogenomic timetree for Darwin's enigmatic South American mammal Macrauchenia patachonica " . Nature Communications . 8 : 15951.
doi :
10.1038/ncomms15951 .
PMC
5490259 .
PMID
28654082 .
^ Welker, F.;
Collins, M. J. ; Thomas, J. A.; Wadsley, M.; Brace, S.; Cappellini, E.; Turvey, S. T.; Reguero, M.; Gelfo, J. N.; Kramarz, A.; Burger, J.;
Thomas-Oates, J. ; Ashford, D. A.; Ashton, P. D.; Rowsell, K.; Porter, D. M.;
Kessler, B. ; Fischer, R.; Baessmann, C.; Kaspar, S.; Olsen, J. V.; Kiley, P.; Elliott, J. A.; Kelstrup, C. D.; Mullin, V.; Hofreiter, M.;
Willerslev, E. ; Hublin, J.-J.; Orlando, L.; Barnes, I.; MacPhee, R. D. E. (2015-03-18).
"Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwin's South American ungulates" . Nature . 522 (7554): 81–84.
doi :
10.1038/nature14249 .
hdl :
11336/14769 .
ISSN
0028-0836 .
PMID
25799987 .
S2CID
4467386 .
^ Buckley, M. (2015-04-01).
"Ancient collagen reveals evolutionary history of the endemic South American 'ungulates' " . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . 282 (1806): 20142671.
doi :
10.1098/rspb.2014.2671 .
PMC
4426609 .
PMID
25833851 .
Bibliography
External links