Rangifer tarandus eogroenlandicus (Greenland Caribou)

[Peter]

There is no current evidence for the presence of caribou or reindeer on the east coast of Greenland. The wild caribou (Rangifer tarandus eogroenlandicus) of north-east Greenland (c. 70°-78°N) disappeared around 1900. Further, although 22 semi-domestic reindeer were released on the east coast in the Sermilik Fjord (66°N) behind Tasiilaq about 1971, there have been no recent observations of animals, and the popula-tion is assumed extinct.

Does anyone know more?

[another specialist]

Still regard as a valid subspecies...................

[ftp]http://cerfs.free.fr/english/identitepays-e.php3?genus=Rangifer&®ion1=america[/ftp]

Some authorities dispute its status, however, and regard it as a form of peary's caribou Rangifer tarandus pearji which is extant in northwest greenland.

Since the range of the two was so widely seperate,however, and since the habitats were significantly different, it seems wisest to, record this animals passing about 1950 as an effective extinction and to leave it to the zoologists to argue the finer issues of relationship...

above from the encyclopedia of vanished species by david day

[another specialist]

Mol Phylogenet Evol. 1998 Oct;10(2):151-9. Related Articles, Links


Polyphyletic origin of the small-bodied, high-arctic subspecies of tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).

Gravlund P, Meldgaard M, Paabo S, Arctander P.

Department of Population Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, Copenhagen O, DK-2100, Denmark. [e-mail]

In order to investigate the origin of the three small-bodied, high-arctic subspecies of reindeer, Rangifer tarandus pearyi (the Canadian Archipelago), R. t. eogroenlandicus (East Greenland, extinct since 1900 AD), and R. t. platyrhynchus (Svalbard), samples were collected at nine localities from all six of the currently recognized subspecies of the tundra reindeer. A 203-bp-long fragment of the mitochondrial control region was sequenced from 113 reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). The now extinct subspecies R. t. eogroenlandicus was for the first time included in a molecular study; DNA was extracted from four museum specimens (skins and bones) and successfully sequenced. A polyphyletic origin for the three subspecies of small-bodied, high-arctic reindeer is suggested, with R. t. pearyi and R. t. eogroenlandicus being closely related and probably having evolved in high-arctic North America and R. t. platyrhynchus from Svalbard having evolved from Eurasian large-bodied reindeer. The small-bodied, high-arctic reindeer presumably represent ecotypes that have evolved convergently in similar high-arctic environments. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

[sebbe67]

East Greenland Caribou

[another specialist]

also known as the Arctic reindeer

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer

[another specialist]

A. W. Barfield, 1961, prefers to call these deer Reindeer, synonymous with pearyi

[sebbe67]

Source: The Doomsday book

[another specialist]

Degerbol, M. 1957. The extinct reindeer of East-Greenland, Rangifer tarandus eogroenlandicus, subsp. nov., compared with reindeer from other Arctic regions. Acta Arctica 10: 66.

www.unis.no/RESEARCH/BIOLOGY/ref_list_reindeers/reference_list.htm

[another specialist]

Thanks sebbe67 for the image

[Peter]

Mar 14, 2006 22:00:49 GMT another specialist said:

Degerbol, M. 1957. The extinct reindeer of East-Greenland, Rangifer tarandus eogroenlandicus, subsp. nov., compared with reindeer from other Arctic regions. Acta Arctica 10: 66.

www.unis.no/RESEARCH/BIOLOGY/ref_list_reindeers/reference_list.htm

I have a copy of this book/paper (first description of this extinct subspecies). I'm making it digital (pdf), but that will take some time. I will let you when I've finished it.

For now an image from this book, the only mounted specimen known of the extinct East-Greenland reindeer. CN. 647. Scoresby Sund, Ryder Expedition 1892. The antlers originate from another specimen. The only other available skin (CN. 592) has not been mounted.

[surroundx]

Some snippets until Peter has digitized the full paper:

books.google.com.au/books?id=pF1XAAAAMAAJ&dq=bibliogroup%3A%22Acta+arctica%22&q=eogroenlandicus#search_anchor

books.google.com.au/books?id=pF1XAAAAMAAJ&dq=bibliogroup%3A%22Acta+arctica%22&q=t.eogroenlandicus#search_anchor

[koeiyabe]

"Lost Animals (in Japanese)" by WWF Japan (1996)

[Bhagatí]

Mar 14, 2006 22:00:49 GMT another specialist said:

Degerbol, M. 1957. The extinct reindeer of East-Greenland, Rangifer tarandus eogroenlandicus, subsp. nov., compared with reindeer from other Arctic regions. Acta Arctica 10: 66.

www.unis.no/RESEARCH/BIOLOGY/ref_list_reindeers/reference_list.htm

If one of you has it's digital (pdf), whether he would be so willing, to share it?
If it is still possible?

Provided that if it was helpful. I would be for it, personally grateful.

[Melanie]

It might be of interest that the complete monograph consists of 66 pages and not only of one. (And no: I don't have the monograph).

[Sebbe]

Available names for Rangifer (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae) species and subspecies.

Greenland
Small, pearyi-sized caribou occupied the ice-free parts of Greenland in the Illinoian-Wisconsin interglacial and through the LGM and early Holocene (Meldgaard 1986). Degerbøl (1957) described R. t. eogroenlandicus, which became extinct ~ 1900, from a relict enclave in north-eastern Greenland (Fig. 2). However, Bennike (1988), comparing bones and noting that Peary caribou have been documented crossing Nares Strait to Greenland, doubted that pearyi and eogroenlandicus were subspecifically distinct. That Peary caribou shared certain mtDNA haplotypes and morphological similarities with it (Kvie et al. 2016) casts further doubt on the validity of R. t. eogroenlandicus.

The larger West Greenland caribou is problematic. It is darker than typical arcticus and much darker than pearyi, resembling woodland caribou in its dark-brown body, with neck and ventral area much lighter (Allen 1908). Allen (1908) gives Greenland caribou average condylobasal length and upper maxillary tooth row metrics, both greater than in mainland arcticus and considerably more than in the "little pearyi”. He also notes that antlers of Greenland caribou adult males, although within the range of arcticus in total length, are "slenderer, less palmated, and more recurved”. Historic and archaeological records show that barren-ground-sized caribou immigrated to West Greenland, possibly from Baffin Island via the Davis Strait, in the middle Holocene (Meldgaard 1986). However, a reconstruction of glacial retreat and caribou advance (Yannic et al. 2013) shows colonisation by NAL lineage caribou more likely.

Greenland caribou, with Svalbard caribou, are the most geographically and genetically isolated ecotypes among all extant caribou (average fixation index 41%: Yannic et al. 2013) based on 16 microsatellite loci. They share low relatedness values with all Canadian caribou (Solmundson et al. in press).

The (West) Greenland caribou is neither of the BEL lineage, from which descend all Eurasian and Canadian tundra reindeer and caribou, nor the NAL lineage of woodland caribou: it clusters outside of the BEL cluster, as do Svalbard reindeer (Yannic et al. 2013). Yannic et al. (2018) were unable to include it in their hierarchical analysis "because of their high genetic differentiation”. It is best left as Linnaeus (1767) originally classified it: Rangifer groenlandicus L., 1767 (Miller 1912a).

zookeys.pensoft.net/article/80233/