This is an incredibly strange creature, with a face resembling a sheep, eyes like a human, teeth similar to a mouse, and a skeletal structure akin to that of a lizard.
When hearing such descriptions, many people may doubt their existence or think of them as a cold-blooded animal. However, they actually did exist on Earth; moreover, they were a species of mammal that faced a rather unfortunate fate, quickly becoming extinct after coming into contact with humans.
They are a species endemic to the Balearic Islands in Spain, known as Myotragus balearicus, also referred to as the Balearic cave goat – a mountain goat belonging to the subfamily Caprinae, living in rocky caves on the islands of Mallorca and Menorca. This species belongs to a monotypic genus, Myotragus.
The Balearic Islands (above) are located to the west of the Mediterranean Sea, where Mallorca and Menorca (both part of the Balearic Islands) are found, and where the Balearic goats were discovered.
The Balearic Islands are situated in the western Mediterranean, where the Balearic cave goats primarily inhabit the islands of Mallorca and Menorca. They were first studied academically in 1909. The earliest discoverer of the Balearic cave goat was paleontologist Dorothea Bate from the Natural History Museum in London, who also named this goat species.
The Balearic cave goat primarily lives on the islands of Mallorca and Menorca.
Although the Balearic goat was discovered by humans more than 100 years ago, this does not mean that humans have understood the nature of this strange animal.
First of all, although this creature resembles a sheep and possesses ruminant features, such as horns, its eyes are oriented forward like those of humans.
Skull of the Balearic cave goat.
In fact, only the eyes of predatory animals, humans, and primates face forward. This forward-facing orientation has many advantages; for example, it can create binocular vision and help determine the location of prey ahead.
In contrast, herbivores are prey that are often chased and must flee, so a wider field of view is more crucial than stereoscopic vision; thus, their eyes are usually positioned on the sides of their heads. However, the Balearic cave goat breaks this evolutionary convention.
Despite having predator-like eyes, the Balearic cave goat is actually a herbivorous animal. Yet the oddities of this creature do not stop there. Through fossil analysis, it can be seen that their teeth closely resemble those of rodents – their lower incisors continuously grow and elongate throughout their lives, a characteristic of rodents rather than hoofed animals. Additionally, their noses are also shorter than those of other hoofed species, resembling that of a rabbit rather than a cow or sheep.
The lower jaw of the Balearic goat has only 2 incisors.
Even more strangely, the lower jaw of the Balearic goat has only 2 incisors, while the upper jaw has no incisors, only molars.
A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B in 2012 showed that Balearic cave goats could live up to 27 years. They are nearly twice the size of similarly sized herbivores on land.
Another study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2009 revealed something even stranger: the body of the Balearic goat does not resemble that of a mammal but rather more like a reptile.
Everyone knows that mammals are warm-blooded animals and require a lot of food to maintain body temperature and growth, so they thrive best in environments with ample food.
Reptiles, on the other hand, are cold-blooded animals that can adjust their growth rate according to food availability and do not need much food to maintain body temperature. Thus, in resource-scarce areas, such as on islands, typically only reptiles and low-energy vertebrates survive.
Like most islands, the Balearic Islands are also resource-scarce, and animal fossils found on the islands often show signs of malnutrition. This study suggests that perhaps to adapt to this “innate deficiency”, the Balearic cave goat was forced by the environment to develop characteristics suited to a reptilian lifestyle.
The Balearic cave goat is truly a herbivorous animal.
This research indicates that this creature differs from any other mammal that has ever existed on Earth, particularly as their bones exhibit characteristics and structures similar to those of crocodiles and lizards.
As cold-blooded animals, reptile bones are somewhat akin to wood; they have growth rings similar to annual growth rings in woody plants, since their growth is also cyclical and uneven. However, this characteristic does not appear in the bones of warm-blooded animals, as mammals grow at a consistent rate. Before the Balearic cave goat was discovered, these growth rings were considered a characteristic and an important sign to distinguish between reptiles and warm-blooded animals.
However, the bones of the Balearic cave goat feature growth rings typical of reptiles; thus, the Balearic cave goat is the first mammal in the world discovered to possess reptilian characteristics.
The Balearic goat is very short, standing only half a meter tall.
Similar to many island creatures, Balearic goats are very short, standing only half a meter tall, and newborns may be the size of an adult mouse. However, before the arrival of humans, Balearic goats were the largest mammals on the island of Mallorca, as the other animals present were the giant dormouse Hypnomys and the giant shrew Asoriculus.
These Balearic goats thrived happily on the Balearic Islands for 5.2 million years, and around 3000 BC, they “vanished” from the Earth, leaving only some skeletons in a few caves on the Balearic Islands. This was also the time when all three mammal species on the island of Mallorca, specifically the Balearic goat, giant dormouse, and giant shrew, became extinct – coinciding with the time humans arrived on the island.
After the arrival of humans, the Balearic Islands entered the Neolithic period. Archaeologists found several animal bones carved in human caves, including those of the Balearic goat. This indicates that both the goats and humans on the Balearic Islands coexisted for a time.
Some archaeological studies have also discovered that the horns on the skulls of some Balearic goats had been cut off, suggesting that humans may have attempted to domesticate them.
Based on this, some researchers argue that humans were the direct cause of the extinction of the Balearic cave goat and other characteristic mammal species. However, some researchers disagree with this view, suggesting that climate change was the primary reason for the mass extinction of the mysterious creatures on the Balearic Islands.
