| Camelops Temporal range: late Pliocene to late Pleistocene |
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| Camelops hesternus in the George C. Page Museum, Los Angeles | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Camelidae |
| Tribe: | †Camelopini |
| Genus: | †Camelops Leidy, 1854 |
| Species | |
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†Camelops sulcatus |
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Camelops is an extinct genus of camels that once roamed western North America, where it disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene about 10,000 years ago. Its name is derived from the Greek κάμελος (camel) + ὀψ (face), thus "camel-face."
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Camelops first appeared during the Late Pliocene period and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene. Its extinction was part of a larger North American die-off in which native horses, camelids and mastodons also died out. This megafaunal extinction coincided roughly with the appearance of the big game hunting Clovis culture, and biochemical analyses have shown that Clovis tools were used in butchering camels.[1]
Because soft tissues are generally not preserved in the fossil record, it is not certain if Camelops possessed a hump, like modern camels, or lacked one, like its modern llama relatives. Camelops hesternus was seven feet (slightly over two meters) at the shoulder, making it slightly taller than modern Bactrian camels. Plant remains found in its teeth exhibit little grass, suggesting that the camel was an opportunistic herbivore; that is, it ate any plants that were available, as do modern camels.
The Wal-Mart camel is the fossil of a prehistoric camel (Camelops sp.) found at a Wal-Mart construction site in Mesa, Arizona in 2007. Workers digging a hole for an ornamental citrus tree found the bones of two (juvenile and infant) animals that may have lived as long as 10,000 years ago. Arizona State University Geology Museum curator Brad Archer calls it an important and rare find for the area.[2] Wal-Mart officials and Greenfield Citrus Nursery owner John Babiarz whose crew discovered the remains agreed that the bones will go directly to the Geology Museum at Arizona State University where further research and restoration of the fossils could be done. Camels lived in what is now Arizona until about 8,000 years ago.[3] More camel bones were found in Gilbert, Arizona in May 2008.[4][5]
See also Syrian Camel, an extinct species that reached at least nine feet (2.7 m) tall at the shoulder.