0.9" Poebrotherium Wilsoni Fossil Jaw Teeth Primitive Camel SD Badlands Display
Location: Brule Formation, South Dakota
Weight: 0.4 Ounces
Dimensions: 0.9 Inches Long, 0.8 Inches Wide, 0.4 Inches Thick
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33.9 - 22 Million Years Old Oligocene Epoch
Poebrotherium is an extinct genus of camelid, endemic to North America. They lived from the Eocene to Miocene epochs, existing for approximately 32 million years.
Poebrotherium was first named by scientist Joseph Leidy in 1848, and its relationship to other White River fossils was later expanded by him in 1853. The portions that Leidy was able to examine helped him determine it was likely related to modern llamas, even though there was a paucity of new material available after his 1848 diagnosis. Between 1848 and 1853, cases of new material were shipped back to Leidy. Maddeningly, only three more Poebrotherium tooth samples were among the remains recovered.
Its skull resembled that of a modern llama, while its limbs ended in hooved toes and were more built for speed than the feet of Protylopus. Despite this apparent adaptation to the open plains, Poebrotherium has been found in all major environments, including forests and river overbank deposits, indicating that it was not tied to one particular environment. The teeth of Poebrotherium were more generalized than those of modern camelids. In fact, despite the name meaning "grass-eating beast," it is likely that Poebrotherium was either a browser or a mixed feeder, and grass may have played a minimal role in the diet.
Poebrotherium, unlike its modern camelid relatives, adapted to deserts or mountains, filled the ecological role of a small to medium-sized herbivore, similar to gazelles or deer. Fossils show that it was frequently preyed upon by the entelodont Archaeotherium. Some skeletal remains exhibit clear feeding marks, suggesting that Archaeotherium not only hunted but may have stored or cached portions of Poebrotherium carcasses. This makes Archaeotherium the only predator in the White River ecosystem known to leave such distinctive traces on these bones.
