Gigantocamelus

Gigantocamelus
Temporal range: Pliocene–Early Pleistocene
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Camelidae
Tribe: Camelini
Genus: †Gigantocamelus
Barbour and Schultz (1939)
Species
  • G. spatulus

Gigantocamelus is an extinct genus of terrestrial herbivore in the family Camelidae, endemic to North America from the Pliocene through Pleistocene 4.9 mya—300,000 years ago existing for approximately 4.68 million years.[1] It was the second largest known species of Camelid to roam the Earth.

Taxonomy

Gentilicamelus was named by Barbour and Schultz in 1939. Its type is Gigantocamelus fricki. It was synonymized subjectively with Titanotylopus by Webb (1965) and Kurten and Anderson (1980). It was assigned to Camelidae by Barbour and Schultz (1939), Harrison (1985), Dalquest (1992) and Honey et al. (1998).[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Morphology

Two specimens were examined for estimated body mass by M. Mendoza, C. M. Janis, and P. Palmqvist. These specimens were estimated to weigh:

Fossil distribution

Fossil distribution ranged from Texas to Nebraska to Western Oregon and to the Sierra Nevada of Nevada/California.

References

  1. ↑ PaleoBiology Database: Gigantocamelus, basic info
  2. ↑ E. H. Barbour and C. B. Schultz. 1939. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum 2(2)
  3. ↑ S. D. Webb. 1965. Bulletin of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Science 1
  4. ↑ B. Kurten and E. Anderson. 1980. Pleistocene mammals of North America 1-442
  5. ↑ J. A. Harrison. 1985. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 57:1-29
  6. ↑ W. W. Dalquest. 1992. Problems in the nomenclature of North American Pleistocene camelids. Annales Zoologici Fennici 28(3-4):291-299
  7. ↑ J. G. Honey, J. A. Harrison, D. R. Prothero and M. S. Stevens. 1998. Camelidae. In C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.), Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America 1:439-462
  8. ↑ M. Mendoza, C. M. Janis, and P. Palmqvist. 2006. Estimating the body mass of extinct ungulates: a study on the use of multiple regression. Journal of Zoology 270(1):90-101


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