Research using ancient DNA has allowed a team of scientists led by Museum Curator Ross MacPhee
to firmly establish the relationships of one of the strangest mammals
in the known South American fossil record. Their study of this unusual
species, Macrauchenia patachonica, was published today in the journal Nature Communications.
“Macrauchenia was the last of its kind, part of a hugely
successful group of ungulates that had ranged over much of South America
for tens of millions of years. One of its early relatives even made it
to what is now part of Antarctica,” says MacPhee.
Weighing as much as 1,100 pounds, Macrauchenia patachonica
was long-necked, with a body shape vaguely reminiscent of a camel’s. Its
most distinguishing trait was its weirdly placed nasal opening,
situated high on the skull, between the eye sockets. To some scientists,
this feature suggested an elephant-like trunk.
Since morphology hadn’t solved the riddle of Macrauchenia’s relationships, the team came up with the solution of using ancient mitochondrial DNA, extracted from an 11,000-year-old Macrauchenia fossil found in a cave in southern Chile…
