Macrauchenia patachonica

[RSN]

Macrauchenia
Macrauchenia patachonica Darwin

Kingdom: Animalia; Phyllum: Chordata; Subphyllum: Vertebrata Class: Mammalia; Subclass: Theria; Infraclass: Placentalia; Order: Litopterna; Family: Macraucheniidae; Genus: Macrauchenia





















Although this animal looked like it should be a member of the camel family, it was actually related to a group of animals that no longer exists.

Meaning of scientific name
"Long llama" ('Auchenia' was the old Latin name for llama, but comes from the Greek for 'neck').

Pronunciation of scientific name
mak-raw-KEE-nee-ah

Statistics
1.5m at the shoulder; about 200 kg.

Physical Description
Macrauchenia looks a little like a camel, although it is not closely related to modern hoofed animals. Its strange skull suggests that it had a muscular proboscis.

Distribution
The first Macrauchenia skeleton was actually discovered by Charles Darwin on a stop-over on his famous journey on board The Beagle. Since then many more remains have been found in the Lujan formation in Argentina.

Habitat
They inhabited the woodlands and grasslands of North and South America.

Diet
Macrauchenia browsed on trees.

Behaviour
Little work has been done on Macrauchenia, but its ankle joints and shin bones seem to be adapted for extreme mobility, allowing it to twist and turn to avoid pursuers at high speed.

Conservation status
Extinct.

History
They lived 7 million - 20,000 years ago. This bizarre-looking animal is a member of a group of extinct animals called litopterns, which are only known from South America. No one knows how they are related to other mammals - until more fossils are found they are assumed to be distant relatives of our familiar hoofed animals. Macrauchenia was the last of its kind - when it went extinct it was the end of the litoptern lineage.

Closest relative
None - it is a member of the now extinct group of South American hoofed animals.

Fossil Finds
The first Macrauchenia skeleton was discovered by Charles Darwin on a stop-over during his famous journey on board The Beagle. Since then many more remains have been found in the Lujan formation in Argentina.


Details
This bizarre-looking animal was a member of a group of extinct animals called litopterns, only known from South America. No one knows how they were related to other mammals - until more fossils are found they are assumed to be distant relatives of our familiar hoofed animals. Macrauchenia was the last of its kind, its extinction saw the end of the litoptern lineage.


Sources:
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/455.shtml
www.abc.net.au/beasts/factfiles/factfiles/macrauchenia.htm
www.dinosoria.com/macrauchenia.htm

Other pics:
members.tripod.com/rc-anodizing/PEZT/animalsCC/macrau.jpg

[RSN]

Macrauchenia

The last of its line, Macrauchenia was the final member of South America's unique native hoofed animals, which have not been studied much since their discovery. The strangest feature is Macrauchenia's skull, with nostrils right up on top of the head. This led to all sorts of suggestions, including the idea that they were aquatic, using these nostrils as a blowhole. The most likely explanation, though, is that they had a tapir-like proboscis, giving them a 'hose nose'.

Macrauchenia's legs have also been studied. Their leg bones were very resilient to stresses resulting from weaving and changing direction frequently. Perhaps this was the animals' main defense strategy when escaping from a predator like Smilodon. Smilodon was a heavy, powerful animal that would not have been able to change direction very quickly whilst it was trying to bring down a victim.

Source:
www.abc.net.au/beasts/evidence/prog5/page3.htm

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Questions and Answers about Macrauchenia - BBC

Question: What is the name of the camel-like animal with a floppy nose in program 5?

Answer: The floppy-nosed animals are Macrauchenia - the last members of a family called litopterns which were only found in South America. How Macrauchenia were related to hoofed animals around the rest of the world isn't clear. Have a look at the Mammals' Family Tree section of the website (http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/familytree/default.htm)to see more about how different mammals are related to each other.

Question: How big is Macrauchenia?

Answer: Macrauchenia is 1.5m at the shoulder, which is about the same size as a modern wildebeest.

Question: How do we know that Macrauchenia lived in herds?

Answer: We know very little about Macrauchenia's behaviour, and they probably weren't as common as wildebeest or other animals which live in large herds today. However, being easy prey for big cats like Smilodon they would have benefitted from living in groups if they lived in the open.

Question: How do we know what Macrauchenia ate?

Answer: Macrauchenia's teeth show that it was a herbivore, and its long neck made it adapted for eating from tall trees.

Question: How do we know that Macrauchenia could twist and turn very well?

Answer: Macrauchenia's leg bones have been studied closely. Its ankles were very mobile,and its leg bones were very strong, especially resistant to stresses from side-to-side. This is common in animals that change direction frequently when running.

Question: How do we know that Macrauchenia had a long nose?

Answer: One of the most extraordinary things about Macrauchenia is its nostrils, which are placed right up on the top of its skull. This has, in the past, led to speculation that they were used like a blow-hole and that Macrauchenia lived underwater! The rest of its skeleton, of course, shows that this is highly unlikely, and its remains are not found near water! Instead, the nostrils are like those of tapirs and other animals with a fleshy nose.

Question: How do we know what colour Macrauchenia was?

Answer: Macrauchenia's colour is a matter of speculation as we have no evidence for it, but we can look to modern animals living in a similar environment (such as the llamas in South America and antelope in Africa). These suggests that their general colour was probably a sandy brown as camouflage, possibly with markings on the rear if they lived in herds, like modern deer and antelope have today.

Source:
www.abc.net.au/beasts/evidence/prog5/page3_2.htm

[RSN]

Additional pictures of my favourite pre-historic mammal:

[RSN]

In chronologic order: Glyptodon clavipes, quartenary gliptodont; Macrauchenia patachonica, herbivore ungulate of quartenary; Toxodon platensis, herbivore ungulate of quartenary; Glossotherium robustum, ground sloth of the quartenary.

[Bowhead Whale]

I personnally own a small grey plastic figurine of this animal. I found it on the top of a toy collection in a fabric store. As I recognized the animal, and as toys representing it are rare, I immediately offered the owner to buy it. She said it wasn't for sale, that is was there for the kids she sometimes babysittered. She gave it to me, just like that, and said she was going to replace it. And that is how I got a little plasic Macrauchenia rarity.

[RSN]

Please post it here! I already made one biscuit model of it, but it isn´t good, is one of my earliest models.

[Bowhead Whale]

Ooooooohhhh...I didn't photograph it, because it's quite small, too small for my cheap camera to make a good photo( my camera must be at least at 50 cm of the subject to make a good picture). But I will try. I will photograph my figurine and, when it's ready, I'll send it to Peter so he can post it here. But I don't guarantee a good quality picture.

[Peter]

Posted, see previous post!

[greywolf]

I have been working recently on this animal too, and this is the result: www.deviantart.com/deviation/35529286/ Another Macrauchenia pic ^^

[RSN]

Yes, it is very good!

[greywolf]

Thank you!

[RSN]

You're welcome!

I really don't know why some specialists still THINK Macrauchenia had a trunk. Look it skull. How it may had a normal nose between the eyes, with a single nostril??

[greywolf]

Well... my Ethology teacher tells me: ''Two options: Or it had a trunk.... or it had a dolphin-like spiracle (the last option was just kidding xD)'' Have to say that my teacher didn't knew Macrauchenia before I ask him about its skull, so even without more info about it, he could conclude it had trunk.
Anyway, all that ''pores'' and bumps around the nose are sign of powerful muscles, right?, just like in elephants.

[Bowhead Whale]

Greywolf is right. The two nostrals put together in one on the front of a bumped nose like this means something else than an ordinary nose. It can hardly be a dolphin's nose, as its blowhole is made with a single asymetric nostral, the left one. Actually, the skull of the Machrauchenia looks a lot like the saiga's.

[another specialist]

Macrauchenia ("long llama", based on the now superseded Latin term for llamas, Auchenia, from Greek terms which literally mean "big neck") was a long-necked and long-limbed, three-toed South American ungulate mammal, typifying the order Litopterna. The oldest fossils date back to around 7 million years ago, and M. patachonica disappears from the fossil record during the late Pleistocene, around 20,000-10,000 years ago. M. patachonica was the best known member of the family Macraucheniidae, and is known only from fossil finds in South America, primarily from the Lujan Formation in Argentina. The original specimen was discovered by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. In life, Macrauchenia resembled a humpless camel with a short trunk, though it is not closely related to either camels or proboscideans.[1]

Description

Macrauchenia had a somewhat camel-like body, with sturdy legs, a long neck and a relatively small head. Its feet, however, more closely resembled those of a modern rhinoceros, and had three hoofs each. It was a relatively large animal, with a body length of around 3 metres (9.8 ft) and a weight up to 1042 kg.[2][3]

One striking characteristic of Macrauchenia is that, unlike most other mammals, the openings for nostrils on its skull were atop the head, leading some early scientists to believe that, much like a whale, it used these nostrils as a form of snorkel. Soon after some more recent findings[citation needed], this theory was rejected. An alternative theory is that the animal possessed a trunk, perhaps to keep dust out of the nostrils.[2] Macrauchenia's trunk may be comparable to that of the modern Saiga antelope.

One insight into Macrauchenia's habits is that its ankle joints and shin bones may indicate that it was adapted to have unusually good mobility, being able to rapidly change direction when it ran at high speed.[1]

Macrauchenia is known, like its relative, Theosodon, to have had a full set of 44 teeth.

Paleobiology

Macrauchenia was a herbivore, likely living on leaves from trees or grasses. Carbon isotope analysis of M. patachonica's tooth enamel, as well as analysis of its hypsodonty index (low in this case; i.e., it was brachydont), body size and relative muzzle width suggests that it was a mixed feeder, combining browsing on C3 foliage with grazing on C4 grasses.[4] Scientists believe that, because of the forms of its teeth, Macrauchenia ate using its trunk to grasp leaves and other food. It is also believed that it lived in herds like modern-day wildebeest or antelope, the better to escape predators.

When Macrauchenia first arose, it would have been preyed upon by the largest of native South American predators, terror birds such as Andalgalornis, and carnivorous sparassodontids such as Thylacosmilus. During the late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene, the Panama Isthmus formed, allowing predators of North American origin, such as the puma, the jaguar and the saber-toothed cat, Smilodon populator, to emigrate into South America and replace the native forms.

It is presumed that Macrauchenia dealt with its predators primarily by outrunning them, or, failing that, kicking them with its long, powerful legs, much like modern-day vicuña or camels[citation needed]. Its potential ability to twist and turn at high speed could have enabled it to evade pursuers.[1]

History of discovery

Macrauchenia was first discovered on 9 February 1834 at Port St Julian in Patagonia (Argentina) by Charles Darwin, when HMS Beagle was surveying the port during the voyage of the Beagle.[5] As a non-expert he tentatively identified the leg bones and fragments of spine he found as "some large animal, I fancy a Mastodon". In 1837, soon after the Beagle's return, the anatomist Richard Owen revealed that the bones including vertebrae from the back and neck were actually from a gigantic creature resembling a llama or camel, which Owen named Macrauchenia patachonica.[6] In naming it, Owen noted the original Greek terms Μακρος (large or long), and αυχην (neck) as used by Illiger as the basis of Auchenia as a generic name for the llama, Vicugna and so on.[7] The find was one of the discoveries leading to the inception of Darwin's theory. Since then, more Macrauchenia fossils have been found, mainly in Patagonia, but also in Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela.

Evolution

Macrauchenia appeared in the fossil record some 7 million years ago in South America (in the Miocene epoch). It is likely that Macrauchenia arose from either Theosodon or Promacrauchenia. Notoungulata and Litopterna were two ancient orders of ungulates which only occurred in South America. Most of these species became extinct through competition with invading North American ungulates during the Great American Interchange, after the establishment of the Central American land bridge. The litopterns Macrauchenia and Xenorhinotherium and the large notungulates Toxodon and Mixotoxodon were among the only South American ungulate genera to survive the Interchange. These last endemic South American hoofed animals died out at the end of the Lujanian (10,000-20,000 years ago)[8] at roughly the time of arrival of humans at the end of the Pleistocene, along with numerous other large animals on the American continent (such as American proboscideans, equids, camelids and saber-tooth cats). As Macrauchenia was the last of the litopterns, the genus' extinction marks the close of the South American ungulate dynasty.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrauchenia

[another specialist]

Strange mammals' family tree mystery solved

A strange group of mammals lived 10,000 years ago in South America. Some of them had a puzzling combination of rodent, hippo and whale-like features - Charles Darwin called them the ‘strangest animals ever discovered’.

www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2015/march/strange-mammals-family-tree-mystery-solved134242.html?utm_source=enews-southken-20150331&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mar2015

[koeiyabe]

"The Earth Extinct Fauna (in Japanese)" by Tadaaki Imaizumi (1986)

[surroundx]

Welker, Frido et al. (2015). Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwin’s South American ungulates. Nature 522: 81-84. [Abstract]

[surroundx]

Fernicola, J. C., Vizcaino, F, and de Iuliis, G. (2009). The Fossil Mammals collected by Charles Darwin in South America during his travels on board the HMS Beagle. Revista de la Asociatión Geológica Argentina 64(1): 147-159.

[Melanie]

A mitogenomic timetree for Darwin’s enigmatic South American mammal Macrauchenia patachonica

The unusual mix of morphological traits displayed by extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) confounded both Charles Darwin, who first discovered them, and Richard Owen, who tried to resolve their relationships. Here we report an almost complete mitochondrial genome for the litoptern Macrauchenia. Our dated phylogenetic tree places Macrauchenia as sister to Perissodactyla, but close to the radiation of major lineages within Laurasiatheria. This position is consistent with a divergence estimate of ∼66 Ma (95% credibility interval, 56.64–77.83 Ma) obtained for the split between Macrauchenia and other Panperissodactyla. Combined with their morphological distinctiveness, this evidence supports the positioning of Litopterna (possibly in company with other SANU groups) as a separate order within Laurasiatheria. We also show that, when using strict criteria, extinct taxa marked by deep divergence times and a lack of close living relatives may still be amenable to palaeogenomic analysis through iterative mapping against more distant relatives.

www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15951