Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Remains of a hybrid camel skeleton, recently discovered in Austria and previously misidentified as a horse or a cow, suggests that the creature was a mount used by the Ottoman army in the 17th century, according to research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
The remains were excavated from a filled-in cellar and are believed to belong to a creature that was either left behind or traded in the town of Tulln after the Ottoman siege of nearby Vienna in 1683, according to BBC News reports. It is the first intact camel skeleton to be found in central Europe, and DNA analysis indicates that it was a Bactrian-dromedary hybrid.
Inserted map indicates the geographical position of the town Tulln in Austria with a triangle. (Credit: Galik et al.)
Unearthing and identifying “an archaeozoological treasure”
This type of hybrid camel was popular in the army, and the skeleton shows evidence that it had a bone defect indicative of animals that are outfitted with a harness and ridden, the UK news outlet added. The remains are completely preserved and were found as part of a dig associated with the construction of a new shopping center, buried along with various household items.
Dr. Alfred Galik of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, who called the discovery “an archaeozoological treasure,” told the BBC that it took his team a while before they realized that they had located something special. First, they found a mandible which looked like it belonged to cattle, then they found the creature’s cervical vertebrae, which looked like a horse.
It wasn’t until they found the long bones and the metapodials (foot bones) that they were able to identify the skeleton as that of a camel, Dr. Galik noted. While other partial camel skeletons had previously been reported, including some dating back to the Roman era, this marks the first time that an entire set of camel remains had been discovered in this part of the continent.
Hybrid camels made the best war camels, apparently
Based on the results of a genetic analysis and the shape of the creature’s skull, Dr. Galik and his co-authors confirmed that the creature was the offspring of a dromedary mother with one hump and a Bactrian father with two. Such hybrids were not uncommon at the time, and were popular for military use, since they tended to be larger, hardier and easier to handle than their parents.
This is a reconstructed Tulu cranium of the Tulln specimen. (Credit: Galik et al.)
The creature is believed to have been used as part of the second Osmanic-Habsburg war, the authors wrote in their study. It was a male that was slender in build, and had obviously been well cared for during its lifetime. While the town itself was never captured by the Ottomans, the camel was found within, suggesting that it had been traded or left behind after their defeat.
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