Close X
Saturday, September 21, 2024
ADVT 
National

Scientists Make No Bones About Yukon Fossil Find, Redraw Camel's Family Tree

The Canadian Press, 10 Jun, 2015 10:21 AM
    WHITEHORSE — Miners working the Klondike have uncovered an evolutionary treasure that one paleontologist says is as precious as gold.
     
    Three fossils recovered from a gold mine outside of Dawson City, Yukon, in 2008, are the first Western Camel bones found in the territory and Alaska in decades, and they are forcing scientists to redraw the family tree of the now-extinct, ice-age animal, says Grant Zazula, a paleontologist with the territory's Department of Tourism and Culture.
     
    For decades, scientists believed the Western Camels that once lived in North America were related to llamas and alpacas common to South America, but they now have the genetic proof they are actually more closely tied to the camels inhabiting Asia and Arabia, said Zazula.
     
    "You know gold miners ... spend their whole summer digging through that frozen ground looking for gold and we couldn't care less about the gold," he said. "For us the gold is the fossils because it's this incredible resource for understanding extinct and ancient animals of the ice age. It's really our gold mine for sure."
     
    Zazula said scientists can now begin to understand why the camels went extinct 13,000 years ago, at the end of the ice age.
     
    For the past century, paleontologists have studied camels and, based on comparative anatomy, divide bones and fossils into two main branches that led to the animals found in Arabia, Africa and Asia and llamas and alpacas found in South America, said Zazula.
     
    He said paleontologists believed Western Camels were like "giant llamas" or "llamas on steroids."
     
    That theory began to change in 2008 when miners uncovered bones, preserved in the permafrost, while hydraulically stripping the earth near Dawson City, he said. The bones were so well preserved they still held DNA, unlike other mineralized fossils. 
     
    Zazula said a colleague from the American Museum of History picked out the specimens.
     
    "When that was found, we really couldn't believe it because, like I said, there hasn't been a camel bone found in over 30 years, and we knew they were so rare and it was so well preserved."
     
    Zazula said he sent small pieces of the bone to geneticists at the University of California Santa Cruz who were assisted by a statistician and a geologist.
     
    The results have been published in the journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution.
     
    A news release says the DNA indicates the Western Camels split off from the branch that includes modern-day camels about 10 million years ago.
     
    It notes most lived in southern areas of North America, but some made their way north during a relatively warm period of the last ice age about 100,000 years ago. The animals remained in North America until the end of the ice age, when they went extinct.
     
    Zazula said the findings are going to make scientists re-examine other species, too.
     
    "There's something pretty spectacular about holding on to a bone that's 100,000 years old that can tell us so much about the history of the past and the history of the land you live in," he said. "I think that's pretty spectacular."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    10 Per Cent Of Those Surveyed Plan To Max Out New Tfsa Annual Limit: CIBC Poll

    10 Per Cent Of Those Surveyed Plan To Max Out New Tfsa Annual Limit: CIBC Poll
    TORONTO — Ten per cent of Canadians surveyed in a new poll say they typically contribute the maximum amount to their Tax-Free Savings Account and will now invest $10,000.

    10 Per Cent Of Those Surveyed Plan To Max Out New Tfsa Annual Limit: CIBC Poll

    Ottawa To Explore Ways To Give People Option To Boost Canada Pension Plan

    Ottawa To Explore Ways To Give People Option To Boost Canada Pension Plan
    OTTAWA — The Harper government says it will explore giving people the option to pump more of their earnings into the Canada Pension Plan to boost their retirement savings.

    Ottawa To Explore Ways To Give People Option To Boost Canada Pension Plan

    Canada Post And Hamilton In Court Over Placement Of Large Community Mailboxes

    Canada Post And Hamilton In Court Over Placement Of Large Community Mailboxes
    HAMILTON — Canada Post and the City of Hamilton are off to court this afternoon in a fight over the placement of large community mailboxes.

    Canada Post And Hamilton In Court Over Placement Of Large Community Mailboxes

    Temperature Plunge Leaves Ontario Vineyards Scrambling To Prevent Crop Damage

    Temperature Plunge Leaves Ontario Vineyards Scrambling To Prevent Crop Damage
    TORONTO — Vineyard owners in parts of southern Ontario are assessing the damage from a record-breaking plunge into cold weather that some growers say has devastated their grape crops.

    Temperature Plunge Leaves Ontario Vineyards Scrambling To Prevent Crop Damage

    West Vancouver Youth Program Worker, Pooria Mohebbi, Charged In Sexual Assaults On Teen Girl

    West Vancouver Youth Program Worker,  Pooria Mohebbi, Charged In Sexual Assaults On Teen Girl
    Investigators say two charges of sexual assault and one charge of breach of recognizance have been approved against 28-year-old Pooria Mohebbi.

    West Vancouver Youth Program Worker, Pooria Mohebbi, Charged In Sexual Assaults On Teen Girl

    Three Men Seriously Injured When House Explodes In Vancouver Island Community

    COURTENAY, B.C. — RCMP say they have evidence to suggest that illegal drug production caused a house to explode in the Vancouver Island community of Courtenay.

    Three Men Seriously Injured When House Explodes In Vancouver Island Community