camel astragalus
This is a Pleistocene camelid ankle bone, the astragalus. These bones may preserve when other postcranial bones are lost because they are dense, with minimum vascularization.
Based on size, I think this astagalus is from either Hemiauchenia sp. or from Palaeolama mirifica. There may be a way to distinguish between the astragali of these two taxa, but I don't know what those characteristics are. Help me out if you can.
Infraorder TYLOPODA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Superfamily CAMELOIDEA . . . . . . . . .
. . . Family CAMELIDAE [camels, llamas]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subfamily AEPYCAMELINAE [giraffe camels]
. . . . . . . . . . . . (several gen. and sp.)
. . . . . . . . Subfamily FLORIDATRAGULINAE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Floridatragulus sp. [two species]
Subfamily CAMELINAE
. . . . . . . . . . . . .Tribe LAMINI [llamas]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hemiauchenia sp. [five species]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Palaeolama mirifica
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tribe CAMELINI [camels]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Procamelus sp. [two species]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Megatylopus sp.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.