Osteological assessment of Pleistocene Camelops hesternus (Camelidae, Camelinae, Camelini) from Alaska and Yukon. (American Museum novitates, no. 3866)

• Main Authors: Zazula, Grant D., MacPhee, R. D. E., Hall, Elizabeth (Paleontologist), Hewitson, Susan.
• Language: English
• Published: American Museum of Natural History. 2016
• Subjects: Camelops hesternus; Camelidae; Fossil; Alaska; Yukon; Beringia
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2246/6677

45 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), map 26 cm. During the past century, fossils of Pleistocene camels have been occasionally reported from unglaciated regions of Alaska and Yukon (collectively known as eastern Beringia), yet detailed descriptions of these materials are limited or lacking altogether. The detailed osteological treatment presented here establishes that these fossils are virtually indistinguishable from the species Camelops hesternus, a common member of Blancan to Rancholabrean faunas and known best from temperate regions of western North America. Metrically, high-latitude members of C. hesternus seem to have been smaller bodied than representatives from more southerly parts of the species range, a finding that is consistent with body-mass differences among populations of other large mammals whose ranges extended into the far north. The presence of C. hesternus in Alaska and Yukon was likely episodic, limited to relatively warm intervals such as the Last Interglaciation (Sangamonian).