Camelus

A camel is an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide food and textiles. Camels are working animals especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. There are three surviving species of camel. The one-humped dromedary makes up 94% of the world's camel population, and the two-humped Bactrian camel makes up 6%. The wild Bactrian camel is a distinct species that is not ancestral to the domestic Bactrian camel, and is now endangered, with around 1,000 individuals and a continuing decline.

Camelus

Jjron · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
camelPBDB
Sits inside
CameliniPBDB
Diet
browser, grazerPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 47 occurrencesPliocene — about 22 of 47 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 24 of 47 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 47 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.6 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

47 occurrences of Camelus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

47 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

10 formations

Shungura — 5.06°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.01°N, 36.01°EKoobi Fora — 4.27°N, 36.29°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°EPinjor — 32.41°N, 75.61°EPinjor — 31.00°N, 76.70°EChiwondo — 10.17°S, 34.00°ENachukui — 3.87°N, 35.74°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ELatamne — 35.13°N, 36.75°ENagrota — 32.70°N, 74.85°ETatrot — 30.73°N, 76.78°EKuyal'nikian — 46.46°N, 30.73°E

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The named rock units Camelus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 29 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Camelus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Camelus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

525 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Camelus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

31 references

Each of the 47 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 19 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Camelus

Credit
Jjron
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Struthio camelus · l-jz:JZ:48

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCamelini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758