Balearic goat ( lat. Myotragus balearicus , from ancient Greek μῦς - mouse [1] and τράγος - goat) is an extinct goat animal of the subfamily goat that lived on the islands of Majorca and Menorca about 5,000 years ago.
| † Balearic goat |
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| Scientific classification |
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| No rank : | Bilateral symmetric |
| Nadotryad : | Laurasiotherium |
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| International Scientific Name |
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Myotragus balearicus Bate , 1909 |
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Content
The eyes of the Balearic goat were not directed to the sides, like in almost all herbivorous mammals, but forward, giving them the ability of stereoscopic vision . On the lower jaw there were two incisors, like those of rodents and lagomorphs . There were no incisors on the upper jaw. The remaining teeth were adapted for grinding plant foods. Males and females had two very short horns in the upper part of the head. These horns may have been longer, having a short bone base and long horn covers, but no complete horn specimens were found.
The Balearic goat was rather short (about 50 centimeters at the withers), and weighed between 50 and 70 kilograms. The legs are shorter, in proportion to those of other bovids , which did not make the Balearic goat fast. However, this was not a serious drawback, since there were no predators on the island, with the exception of some birds of prey, from which these animals probably hid in vegetation. On the shoulders of the Balearic goat had a pronounced hump, while the back sagged in the lower part. On the foot, like many of the hoarders, there were four toes, of which only two were used for walking. The tail was rather long compared to the rest of the body.
Poikilothermia Hypothesis
There is a hypothesis that the Balearic goats were cold-blooded animals . Paleontologists who examined the bones of an animal compared them to the bones of reptiles that lived in this region at that time. Scientists have concluded that the bones of these animals grew unevenly, like tree rings. According to the hypothesis, the development of these animals occurred in leaps and bounds like in reptiles, since in other mammals the bones form evenly, regardless of environmental conditions [2] .
At the moment there are two versions of the causes of the extinction of this species: climate change and the extermination of the Balearic Islands by the first settlers. A recent radiocarbon examination of bone remains indicates the date of disappearance around 3760 BC. er [3] Although the authors of the study were confident that this disappearance was related to the appearance of people and even suggest attempts at domestication of the goat [4] , the first reliable material traces of people in the Balears are dated several centuries later [5] .