Everything about Myotragus Balearicus totally explained
The
Balearic Islands Cave Goat Myotragus balearicus (
Greek-derived
Neo-Latin:
μυς +
τράγος +
Βαλεαρίδες — "
Balearian mouse-goat") is the scientific name of a species of the subfamily
Caprinae which lived in the islands of
Majorca and
Minorca until its
extinction around 5,000 years ago. This animal was previously described as an 'odd goat,' but since the genetic analyses done at the University of Pompeu Fabra of
Barcelona, it seems that the
Myotragus was more closely related to
sheep than to
goats.
Description
What first strikes the attention about this animal is its head. Its eyes were not directed towards the sides, as are those of nearly all the
herbivorous mammals, but towards the front, granting them stereoscopic vision. The lower jaw rarely contained two perennial-growth incisors in the lower jaw, like
rodents and
lagomorphs, but not other ungulates. The upper jaw lacked incisors. The rest of its teeth were molars and premolars adapted to the crushing of vegetal matter. The nose was short in comparison with the rest of the skull, similar to the noses of rabbits and hares. Finally, both sexes had at the top of the head two very short horns. It is possible these horns were longer, having short bone-bases and long horn-covers, but no complete horns have been found.
The Myotragus balearicus was quite small in size (standing about 50 centimetres high at the shoulder) and weighed between 50 and 70 kilograms. The legs were proportionately shorter than those of other related and less flexible bovids, which didn't make Myotragus balearicus exceptionally fast. This wasn't a serious problem because on the islands there were no predators except for some birds of prey, from which they probably hid in the vegetation. On the shoulders they'd a pronounced hump, while the back was bent in the hindquarters. The legs, like many from the
artiodactyla order, had four fingers of which only two were used to walk. The tail was rather long in comparison to the rest of the body. A goat was spotted in the caves far out in the sea (in a cave) but it may have been a different type of cave goat; this sighting happened in August 2006.
Feeding
The fossil remains of
Myotragus balearicus seem to indicate that this animal was a browser, like the present goats. It fed on all kinds of shrub vegetation and low branches of the trees of the Mediterranean climate, although it had a special predilection to endemic Balearic shrubs. The fossil record of Majorca and Minorca, as well as the absence of grazing animals, seem to indicate that the primitive Balearic Islands were covered by forests before human colonisation and that herbaceous grassland of appreciable size didn't exist. In this habitat, the
Myotragus would move around solitarily (preferably) or in small groups.
Reproduction
Not much is known about the reproductive habits of this species. In
1999 the skeleton of a newly born individual was found near
Manacor in the northeast of Majorca. It was found that the baby Myotragus was quite large in proportion to the size of the mother, and probably it could walk and follow its progenitor around soon after being born. It seems that it didn't take a long time maturing, perhaps only a year or two.
The fact that the species conserved the horns is a possible indication that the males used them to fight for their right to reproduce, but the lack of
sexual dimorphism invites one to think this species wasn't
polygamous or, at least, the males didn't build "harems." Given the ostensibly short length of its horns, a Myotragus in combat had to punch more towards the flanks (as do many small antelope) than to fight head to head (more typical of larger ungulates).
The Mediterranean climate is seasonal; thus, it's thought that
Myotragus had an annual mating season, but it isn't known in what part of the year this occurred. It is thought that the seasonal differences, especially in rainfall, were somewhat less pronounced during the animal's existence than they're today, and that the period of
gestation can't be deduced with certainty.
Origins
The unique characters of
Myotragus balearicus are a consequence of a prolonged process of evolution on the islands (a clear example of
island dwarfing). In this type of isolation, the ungulates tend to become smaller while
rodents and
lagomorphs increase their size, as happened to the
Hypnomys, the giant
dormouse that shared a habitat with
Myotragus. Such species also tend to lose their fear reaction towards predators if none occur on the islands. A clear example of this is the loss of the capacity to run at high speed, the development of stereoscopic vision (which is useful to calculate distances, but not so to watch for predators) and the proportional reduction of the brain, something which has also been observed in the
Homo floresiensis, a newly discovered dwarf-like human species on the island of
Flores, Indonesia.
The analyses of
DNA and the oldest fossils (
Pliocene 5.7 million years ago) of the island of Majorca (
Myotragus pepgonellae) indicate that
Myotragus balearicus, in spite of being a browsing animal, descended originally from grazers. The closest related species to
Myotragus are ovine, such as the extinct
Nesogoral of the Plio-
Pleistocene of
Sardinia, the old
Gallogoral of France (possible mainland ancestor of both the
Myotragus and
Nesogoral), Ovis (present sheep and
mouflon) and the mountain goats of
Central Asia. The last ancestor common to the
Myotragus and
Nesogoral arrived at Majorca and Sardinia around 6 million years ago, a time at which the Straits of
Gibraltar were closed and the
Mediterranean Sea was a small collection of salty lakes. Later on, the opening of the Straits and the massive salt water inflow isolated the animal populations, which diversified in the new Mediterranean islands created by tectonic forces. At the same time, climatic change replaced the vegetation of subtropical type with the present one of Mediterranean type, forcing the
Myotragus to develop drastic changes in its feeding and set of teeth.
Strangely,
Myotragus initially only colonized the island of Majorca. On
Ibiza a strange ecosystem without terrestrial mammals developed in which birds and bats were the main vertebrates, while in Minorca a
giant rabbit evolved that covered the same niche as the
Myotragus in Majorca. With the level of the sea falling in the Glacial Era, Majorca and Minorca were united and
Myotragus replaced the great Minorcan lagomorphs. Both islands separated again at the beginning of the
Holocene.
Extinction
Diverse datings indicate that the three native terrestrial mammals of Majorca (
Myotragus,
Hypnomys and the giant shrew
Nesiosites) disappeared all in the same very short period of time, during the third millennium BC.
During years of continued discussion between scientists, some said the extinction was caused by climate change, while others maintained they were exterminated by the first human settlers of the Balearic Islands. Various evidence could support both opinions; as a result, this question is still not answered unequivocally.
The dominant theory is the one that postulates an extinction by human causes. Traditional methods had dated the first human colonization of the Balearic Islands towards 5000 BC or even before, but subsequent tests with modern methods of dating clearly indicate that there was no human presence before 3000 BC. This date agrees very closely with the fast decline of the three forms.
The first Balearic settlers had a
Neolithic culture, although they continued living in caves, which are plentiful on the islands. In these have been found numerous animal bones, especially those of
Myotragus, with evidence of carving and denting by humans. Most surprising is that not all
Myotragus arrived dead at the caves, but seem to have been kept alive for some time there. Many had their horns trimmed, which healed later. This may mean that their captors were attempting to domesticate them. Domestication ultimately didn't succeed, probably because
Myotragus wouldn't reproduce in captivity or not at a suitable speed, as only remains of adult individuals have been found.
Human hunting, the failure of
domestication, the introduction of domestic animals like goats (that competed with
Myotragus for the same food), cows, pigs and sheep (and consequently, the destruction of the forests to create places for them to pasture) and dogs (which could have preyed on the
Myotragus) were the probable causes for the extinction of this animal.
Discovery
Myotragus balearicus was first excavated and identified in
Majorca in 1909 by the
archaeozoologist Dorothea Bate.
Further Information
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