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CLEVELAND, Ohio – Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and two other schools have discovered something new in the prehistoric past.
They identified two unknown species of hoofed mammals through their 13 million year old fossil. remains of a site in Bolivia.
The animals, dubbed Theosodon arozquetai and Llullataruca shockeyi, resemble small moose or deer in an artist rendering. Their closest living relatives would be horses and rhinos, which separated separately on different evolutionary tracks 60 million years ago.
Extinct, they disappeared about 12,000 years ago, said Darin Croft, professor of biology at CWRU. expeditions that have recovered the fossils.
"Humans have undoubtedly seen the last members of this group," he said during a phone interview. "The findings, announced in the June issue of the Journal of Vertebrae Paleontology, are important not only because they document two species previously unknown to science, but also because they come from latitudes Tropical North of South America Half of the continent has a rich diversity of living mammals, but it is difficult to find fossils.
"The study of fossils from regions like Bolivia, where few others have looked, has allowed us to discover and describe "Croft, who is considered one of the world leaders in neotropical paleomammalogy, the study of prehistoric mammals of the world. South America.
Because South America was geographically isolated for most mammals from South America. According to him, his fossil record makes it a perfect place to "study subjects such as the adaptation of the m Ammifers, Diversification and Community Ecology. "
The main author of the journal's publication was one of Croft's alumni. CWRU graduate Andrew McGrath, is now studying at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Federico Anaya, of the Universidad Autonoma Tomas Frias de Bolivia, also collaborated
. Body fossils used to identify the skull, limb bones, jawbone and teeth of the new species were collected during several expeditions. Their radically different size of the upper limbs was the first clue that they were two species.
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