A new study shows that giant Mongolian camels were hunted and eaten by archaic humans before they went extinct about 27,000 years ago. Scientists found the fossils of the 10ft-tall camels in Tsagaan Agui Cave in the Gobi Altai Mountains of southwestern Mongolia.

The fossilized remains of the extinct species (Camelus knoblochi) show signs of butchery from humans who likely extracted protein-rich bone marrow, and hyenas gnawing it, MailOnline reported. The team believes that humans hunting the 2,200-pound camel significantly contributed to their extinction aside from the widely accepted climate change as its cause of demise.

Humans Used to Hunt and Eat Giant 10ft Camels 27,000 Years Ago As Evident on the Fossils Found in Mongolia
(Photo : Pixabay/Simon)
Humans Used to Hunt and Eat Giant 10ft Camels 27,000 Years Ago As Evident on the Fossils Found in Mongolia

Extinction by Being Less Tolerant of Desertification

Neanderthals once lived in Europe, and Western Asia about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago, while Denisovans were believed to live in Asia about 80,000 years ago. Study author Dr. John W. Olsen from the University of Arizona's School of Anthropology said that the study shows that Camelus knoblochi persisted in Mongolia until the climactic and environmental shift that caused its extinction.

The study, titled "First Documented Camelus Knoblochi Nehring (1901) And Fossil Camelus Ferus Przewalski (1878) From Late Pleistocene Archaeological Contexts in Mongolia" published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, indicates that the giant camel lived in the mountains and lowland steppe regions where it is less dry than those of their modern relatives.

But when climate change hit and adversely affected their environment, the authors concluded that C. knoblochi was unable to tolerate the desertification than C. ferus, the domestic Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), and the domestic Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius).

During the late Pleistocene era, Mongolia's environment has become drier and finally became a desert. Although some of the species may have lingered towards the end, especially in the milder forest-steppe and further north in neighboring Siberia, it was still not enough and their species ceased to exist.

Paleobiologist Dr. Alexey Klementiev from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch, said that the team concludes that C. knoblochi became extinct in Mongolia and Asia about 27,000 years ago at the end of Marine Isotope Stage 3 mainly due to climate change that triggered the desertification of the environment.

ALSO READ: How Do Arabian Camels Travel 100 Miles of Desert and Endure Weeks Without Water?

Humans Likely Lived With Giant Mongolian Camels

In a similar report in EurekAlert! researchers noted that the cave where the giant camel's fossils were found is also a place that contains a rich, stratified sequence of human Paleolithic cultural material, which suggests that archaic humans and giant Mongolian camels once lived together.

More so, the place also contains bones of wolves, cave hyenas, rhinoceros, horses, wild donkeys, ibexes, Mongolian gazelles, and wild sheep.

Dr. Arina M Khatsenovich, the corresponding author from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, Russia, said that a C. knoblochi metacarpal bone from the cave dated between 59,000 and 44,000 years ago exhibits butchery and gnawing signs from humans and hyenas respectively. She explains that the butchery traces could mean that Late Pleistocene humans in Mongolia could hunt or scavenge C. knoblochi.

Although they do not have sufficient material evidence regarding the interaction between humans and the giant camel, the team believes that the former likely did not target the latter for domestication.

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