Title of the Article: Camels Ancestors Lived in the Arctic.
Source: Science News Website.
Website URL: http://www.sciencenews.
From my past current event I briefly talked about the engraved valleys within the Antarctic - however in this article we will be looking at the other pole. As mentioned before, in our ESS we discussed Tectonic Movements, Evolution, as well as speciation. I have chosen to write about this article since it deals with Camels millions of years ago, and it can be seen that they varied a lot from the camels we know of today - also the fact that speciation occurred way back then due to the tectonic movements and climate change is beyond obvious.
The title of the article hooked me immediately: "Camels in the Arctic"?! An animal that is iconic for the desert might have been adept to extreme cold once? No - however I was deeply disappointed once I've started reading it. The beginning of the article contradicts the 'mystery' and 'fascination' (in my opinion at least) found in the title. The authors of the article have said that 3 million years ago, WHEN THE ARCTIC WAS A LOT WARMER THAN TODAY, the ancestors of camels have roamed the Arctic. I lived in disbelief that camels started off as animals which had to adapt to extremely cold weather in order to survive - after they have been physically isolated from the 'original camel specie'. With that sentence my interest for the article was crushed. However I still managed to find some interest in the physique of the camel. The bones found in the Canadian Arctic region, when compared to camels nowadays, are 29% larger. The team of scientists have concluded that the ancestor of the camels in that area was roughly 900kg in weight, and 2.7 meters in height.
By Mihajlo
No comments:
Post a Comment