Endocranial Casts of Camelops hesternus and Palaeolama sp.: New Insights into the Recent History of the Camelid Brain

Abstract

Endocranial casts are capable of capturing the general brain form in extinct mammals due to the high fidelity of the endocranial cavity and the brain in this clade. Camelids, the clade including extant camels, llamas, and alpacas, today display high levels of gyrification and brain complexity. The evolutionary history of the camelid brain has been described as involving unique neocortical growth dynamics which may have led to its current state. However, these inferences are based on their fossil endocast record from approximately ∼40 Mya (Eocene) to ∼11 Mya (Miocene), with a gap in this record for the last ∼10 million years. Here, we present the first descriptions of two camelid endocrania that document the recent history of the camelid brain: a new specimen of Palaeolama sp. from ∼1.2 Mya, and the plaster endocast of Camelops hesternus, a giant camelid from ∼44 to 11 Kya which possessed the largest brain (∼990 g) of all known camelids. We find that neocortical complexity evolved significantly between the Miocene and Pleistocene Epochs. Already ∼1.2 Mya the camelid brain presented morphologies previously known only in extant taxa, especially in the frontal and parietal regions, which may also be phylogenetic informative. The new fossil data indicate that during the Pleistocene, camelid brain dynamics experienced neocortical invagination into the sagittal sinus rather than evagination out of it, as observed in Eocene to Miocene taxa.