One Hump or Two?

A camel is an even-toed ungulate, which means it walks on 2 toes on each foot. They also have distinctive fatty deposits (humps) on the back. The Dromedary (94% of the world’s camel population) has 1 hump. The Bactrian camel (6% of the camel population) has 2 humps. The Wild Bactrian camel is a 3rd species and at less than 1% of the camel population, it is critically endangered. All of these camels are suited to a desert habitat. Except for the Wild Bactrian, camels have been domesticated for a long time, and have been a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. As domesticated animals, they also provide food, such as milk and meat, and textiles via fiber and felt from hair.

 Sometimes the word camel is used in a wider sense, to include not only the Old World camels but also New World camelids (llama, alpaca, quanaco and the vicuna). These new world animals are technically camelids, not camels.

 Camels live an average of 40-50 years. An adult dromedary camel stands 6’1” at the shoulder and 7’1” at the hump, while Bactrian camels can be a foot taller. Camels can run in short bursts at 40 mph, and at a sustained speed of 25 mph. Dromedaries weight as much as 1,320 lbs, while Bactrians can get up to 2,200 lbs.

 The earliest known camel is called Protylopus and lived in North America 40 - 50 million years ago. It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota. By 35 million years ago, it was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. Other ancient forms of camels or camelids were the Stenomylius and the long-necked Aepycamelus.

 The direct ancestor of modern camels (and perhaps of New World camelids as well) was Paracamelius, which existed 3 - 5 million years ago. It spread to South America via the Isthmus of Panama, and to the ‘Old World’ via the Bering Land Bridge. There have been surprising finds of fossil Paracamelius on Ellesmere Island (very much north of Canada and barely west of Greenland) which indicate the dromedary is descended from a larger, boreal browser whose hump may have evolved as an adaptation in a cold climate. This particular creature is estimated to have stood around 9 feet tall.

 Which just goes to show that given enough time, evolution can completely adapt to an environment that otherwise would kill the original animal.

  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel

Jonah in a Basilosaurus

Okay, probably not what happened, because we are talking about an extinct species here. Basilosaurus means “king lizard” and it is a genus of large, predatory, prehistoric whale, living from approximately 41.3 to 33.9 million years ago. It was first described in 1834, based on fossils found along the Gulf Coast of the US, along with a few fossils in the eastern US. It was thought to be a giant reptile, hence the -saurus ending to the name. They were later discovered to be an early marine mammal, but it was too late to change the name.

 Likewise, the genus Basilosaurus was something of a wastebasket for odds and ends of fossils that nobody thought belonged anywhere else. But most of those have been removed and placed in more correct classifications, leaving 2 species in this genus.

 Unlike modern whales, who swallow their food whole, the Basilosaurus had various types of teeth, such as canines and molars, so it probably chewed it food. It was the top predator of its environment, preying on sharks, large fish and other marine mammals, such as another early whale, the Dorudon, which seems to have been their predominant food source.

 At a size of 49-66 ft (15-20 m), Basilosaurus  is one of the largest known animals existing from 66 million to 15 million years ago. Basilosaurus Isis is  slightly smaller than Basilosaurus Cetoides by about 7 feet.

 Basilosaurus appear to be closely related to even-toed ungulates, such as giraffes and buffalo. Does that mean it was a land animal that reverted to living in the sea? I don’t know.

 It is not believed that Basilosaurus could produce high-frequency sound and echolocation, which some modern whales can do.

 Studies of a complete skeleton fossil as well as overlapping skeletal reconstruction indicate Basilosaurua had about 70 vertabrae. They were shaped much like eels, and probably moved much like eels as well, mostly at or near the ocean’s surface, as they do not appear to have had a method for diving.

 So, if a person by the name of Jonah had been at sea during the time period, I suppose he could have been eaten by a Basilosaurus. But living through being eaten would have been problematic, since the Basilosaurus would have chewed before swallowing

 Since these were marine mammals, I suppose their ancestors were land mammals that - for whatever reason - decided to return to the water. And other branches of the family went on to become giraffes and buffalo, among others? What a family tree!

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilosaurus