Camels once inhabited the North Pole

Camels are always considered symbolic animals for the desert. However, the researchers have now obtained evidence that these humped animals once inhabited the Arctic Highlands of Canada.

It was discovered the remains of a fossil of a 3.5 million-year-old camel on Ellesmere island in Nunavut, Canada's northernmost territory.

The figure shows camels that once lived in the North Pole
about 3.5 million years ago. (Photo: Live Science)

This ancient camel is 30% larger than modern camels. It is identified by a technique called collagen marker - a measure of a protein in bone called collagen type 1 . Different mammals contain a specific amount of this protein and they can survive much longer than other biological molecules in the body.

According to research reports published in the journal Nature Communications, modern camel varieties originating from giant relatives who once lived in a Arctic region are somewhat warmer than today and have forests. covered.

'This is the first evidence that camels were there (Arctic). This fact is surprising because we have long been associated with camels associated with arid and semi-arid habitats , "Natalia Rybczynski, head of research and paleontologist from Bao Natural Museum of Canada says.

The camels belonging to the genus Camelus genus are even-sized animals that originated in North America during the Eocene period, about 45 million years ago, and then crossed the Eurasian continent to the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia. . Their closest relatives are llamas, alpaca, guanaco and vicuna.