Cave goat

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Cave goat
Reconstruction of the CosmoCaixa museum

Reconstruction of the CosmoCaixa museum

Systematics
without rank: Forehead weapon bearer (Pecora)
Family : Horned Bearers (Bovidae)
Subfamily : Antilopinae
Tribe : Goatsies (Caprini)
Genre : Myotragus
Type : Cave goat
Scientific name of the  genus
Myotragus
Bate , 1909
Scientific name of the  species
Myotragus balearicus
Bate , 1909

The cave goat ( Myotragus balearicus ), also known as the mouse goat , is an extinct species of goat-like that was native to the islands of Mallorca and Menorca , which are part of the Balearic Islands . After initially assuming a genetic relationship with the group of sheep ( Ovis ), an analysis of the mitochondrial DNA confirmed common ancestors with the takins ( Budorcas taxicolor ).

description

Six to seven Chronospecies of the genus Myotragus are known. The cave goat was the last survivor of this genus. The ancestors of Myotragus probably came to the later islands of the Balearic Islands during the Messinian salinity crisis , a dry period ( desiccation ) in the history of the Mediterranean Sea. Cave goat lineage isolation began, according to DNA dating, during the Pliocene (approximately 5.35 million years ago), a time when the Mediterranean basin refilled with water from the Atlantic and the Balearic Islands were cut off from the mainland .

reconstruction

Myotragus balearicus met the islands' first human settlers and was prey for them. Apparently, after the arrival of humans, the cave goat began to become rarer and to retreat to remote mountains. The most recent skeletons date from around 1800 BC. BC, so that the cave goat should have been exterminated around this time. Suspicions that the cave goat was domesticated and later replaced by goats from the mainland fall within the realm of speculation.

The name of the cave goat was formed as an analogy to other animals of the Pleistocene , for example the cave bear , the cave lion and the cave hyena . In truth, there is no evidence that this animal was attached to caves . With a shoulder height of 45-50 centimeters and a weight of 50-70 kilograms, this goat was relatively small; however, it was strongly built and characterized by shortened legs, a fusion of the tarsus and short, sharp horns. Their most notable feature, however, were extremely enlarged lower incisors; these teeth can best be compared to those of a beaver , and there has been speculation that the cave goat used them to peel the bark from trees.

Isolation and adaptation to the environment, such as the absence of predators (other than birds of prey) on the islands, also resulted in the reduction of the brain and sense organs. The eye sockets changed to a front position and thus to a stereoscopic view . Myotragus was particularly long-lived, which is due to the lack of dangerous environmental influences (such as predators). The cave goat lived on average almost twice as old as related species on the mainland.

Locations

Cova de Muleta excavation site

Located in the prehistoric caves of Cova de Muleta near Sóller (1908) and Son Gallard near Deià (1962). In the Serra de Tramuntana mountains , skeletal parts of Myotragus balearicus were recovered from under the Abri Son Matge by the team of archaeologists William H. Waldren and Guillem Rosselló Bordoy ; the fragments were taken to the Museum of Deià. Other sites are the Cova Estrata caves in the municipality of Pollença and Cova des Moro in the municipality of Manacor .

Initial description

When it was first described in 1909, Dorothea Bate from the British Museum (Natural History Department) assumed that the cave goat was an island shape and that its occurrence was limited to the Pleistocene . She believed that Myotragus died out 40,000 to 20,000 years ago during the last ice age .

  • Finds and reconstruction

  • Found objects

  • Skull finds with a jaw

  • Skull find without jaw

  • Skull reconstruction

literature

  • Pere Bover, Josep Quintana, Josep Antoni Alcover: A new species of Myotragus Bate, 1909 (Artiodactyla, Caprinae) from the Early Pliocene of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean). In: Geological Magazine 147 (6), 2010, doi : 10.1017 / s0016756810000336 , pp. 871-885.
  • Oscar Ramírez et al .: Paleogenomics in a Temperate Environment: Shotgun Sequencing from an Extinct Mediterranean Caprine. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 4, No. 5: e5670, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0005670 .
  • Jelle Reumer: Een eeuw Myotragus . In: Straatgras 2009 . No. 4 , 2009, p. 58–59 (Dutch, digitized [PDF; accessed July 30, 2017]).
  • William H. Waldren: Indications of possible sexual dimorphism in the horn cores and certain cranial bone components of the insular, endemic ruminant Myotragus balearicus . In: Deinsea 7 . Rotterdam 1999, p. 383–400 (English, digitized [PDF; accessed July 30, 2017]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joan J. Fornos, RG Bromley, LB Clemmensen, A. Rodrıguez-Perea: Tracks and trackways of Myotragus balearicus Bate (Artiodactyla, Caprinae) aeolianites in Pleistocene from Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean) . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Volume 180, No. 4, 2002, doi: 10.1016 / S0031-0182 (01) 00431-X , pp. 277-313.
  2. ↑ a b c d Mark Van Strydonck: From Myotragus to Metellus - A journey into the prehistory and early history of Mallorca and Menorca . Librum, Hochwald 2014, ISBN 978-3-9524038-8-4 , pp. 37 (Dutch: Monumentaal en mysterieus - Reis door de prehistorie van Mallorca en Menorca . Löwen 2002. Translated by Jürgen K. Schmitt).
  3. ↑ Pere Bover, Bastien Llamas, Kieren J. Mitchell, Vicki A. Thomson, Josep Antoni Alcover, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Alan Cooper, Joan Pons: Unraveling the phylogenetic relationships of the extinct bovid Myotragus balearicus Bate 1909 from the Balearic Islands . In: Quaternary Science Reviews . tape 215 . Elsevier, 2019, ISSN  0277-3791 , p. 185–195 (English, online [PDF; 163 kB ; accessed on June 18, 2019]).
  4. ↑ Pere Bover, Josep Quintana, Josep Antoni Alcover: A new species of Myotragus Bate, 1909 (Artiodactyla, Caprinae) from the Early Pliocene of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean). In: Geological Magazine 147 (6), 2010, doi : 10.1017 / s0016756810000336 , p. 871.
  5. ↑ a b Mark Van Strydonck: From Myotragus to Metellus - A journey into the prehistory and early history of Mallorca and Menorca . Librum, Hochwald 2014, ISBN 978-3-9524038-8-4 , pp. 39 (Dutch: Monumentaal en mysterieus - Reis door de prehistorie van Mallorca en Menorca . Löwen 2002. Translated by Jürgen K. Schmitt).
  6. ↑ a b Mark Van Strydonck: From Myotragus to Metellus - A journey into the prehistory and early history of Mallorca and Menorca . Librum, Hochwald 2014, ISBN 978-3-9524038-8-4 , pp. 38 (Dutch: Monumentaal en mysterieus - Reis door de prehistorie van Mallorca en Menorca . Löwen 2002. Translated by Jürgen K. Schmitt).
  7. ↑ Richard Burleigh, Juliet Clutton-Brock : The survival of Myotragus balearicus bate, 1909, into the neolithic on mallorca . Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 7, No. 4, 1980, doi: 10.1016 / S0305-4403 (80) 80044-6 , pp. 385-388.

Web links

Commons : Cave Goat  - Collection of images, videos and audio files