Millions of years ago, North America was the first and only home of camels. The fossil record is full of them, around 100 species of camel that are now extinct. They ranged from tiny little herbivores that stood two feet tall to species that resembled deer to the giant Camelops that stood seven feet tall at the shoulder. When continents shifted and land bridges arose, these North American camels spread to the Old World and became the dromedary and Bactrian camels we have today. They migrated south and evolved into llamas, vicunas, and alpacas. Then camels in North America died out, the last ones disappearing around 13,000 years ago.
In the 20th century, American camel fossils took a backseat to horse fossils, which also flourished and then went extinct in America. Indeed, many camel skulls were misidentified as horses. But paleontologists are now focusing on the astonishing diversity of extinct American camels. Read what they've found at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Jonathan Chen)
