Giant Camel Fossil Found in Syria (ca. 98,000 BC)
About twice the size of a modern camel, and standing about shoulder height of most African elephants, archaeologists unearthed the fossilized bones of a 100,000 year old camel from Syria. Standing about 12 feet high, human remains from the same period as the camel were also discovered nearby, suggesting that perhaps this camel was killed by a human.
The camel remains were discovered by a joint Syrian-Swiss team at al-Hemel in the Palmyra region, about 250 km from the Syrian capital of Damascus.
It is unknown whether the human remains, which consist of a tooth and an arm fragment, may be attributed to a homo sapiens (a modern human) or a Neanderthal. The site of this discovery was next to a spring, where it is thought that the human may have stalked and killed the camel.
Archaeologists are still baffled as to where this species of camel originated, and why it disappeared, since this size of camel has not been attested to in any other country.
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