Lama

Lama is a genus containing the South American camelids: the wild guanaco and vicuña and the domesticated llama, alpaca, and extinct chilihueque. Before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, llamas, alpacas, and chilihueques were the only domesticated ungulates of the continent. They were kept not only for their value as beasts of burden, but also for their flesh, hides, and wool.

Lama

Schuyler Shepherd · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
Sits inside
LaminiPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 2.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 82 occurrencesPliocene — about 4 of 82 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 64 of 82 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 14 of 82 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.3–2.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.1–1.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.9–1.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.8–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–972 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 12 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 51 occurrences3 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

82 occurrences of Lama 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

82 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

16 formations

Lujan — 36.78°S, 59.87°WLujan — 38.57°S, 58.70°WLujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WLujan — 38.75°S, 60.60°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WTarija — 21.50°S, 64.75°WSalto Ander Egg — 32.12°S, 60.43°WSalto Ander Egg — 32.07°S, 60.55°WSalto Ander Egg — 32.28°S, 60.37°WSalto Ander Egg — 31.03°S, 60.50°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 30.43°S, 56.45°WSopas — 32.05°S, 56.12°WChacra La Blanqueada — 38.37°S, 62.17°WMatadero Saldungaray — 38.53°S, 62.08°WVorohué — 38.03°S, 57.72°WAgua Blanca — 38.48°S, 61.80°WLuján — 35.83°S, 58.02°WChiu-Chiu — 22.34°S, 68.67°WBarranca de los Lobos — 38.12°S, 57.70°WSanta Vitória — 33.74°S, 53.37°WEl Polvorín — 36.99°S, 60.22°WYupoi — 28.60°S, 59.03°WSuelo — 28.60°S, 59.03°WTouro Passo — 29.67°S, 56.87°W

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The named rock units Lama has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 48 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lama and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lama and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

365 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 65 sites for Lama, 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

44 references

Each of the 82 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. 32 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 content1

Picture of Lama

Credit
Schuyler Shepherd
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lama was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itLamini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1800