Camelops

Camelops is an extinct genus of camel that lived in North and Central America from the middle Pliocene to the end of the Pleistocene. It is more closely related to living camels than to lamines, making it a true camel of the Camelini tribe. Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek κάμηλος and ὄψ, i.e. "camel-face". Camelops lived across Western North America, ranging from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains, southwards to Honduras and northwards to Alaska. Camelops became extinct as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event, along with most large mammals across the Americas. The extinctions followed the arrival of humans to the Americas, and evidence has been found indicating that humans butchered Camelops, suggesting that hunting may have been a factor in its extinction.

Camelops

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Sits inside
CameliniPBDB
Diet
browser, browserPBDB, for Camelidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Camelidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 36 of 232 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 195 of 232 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 232 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 13 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 13 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 13 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 13 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 13 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 13 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 13 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 75 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

232 occurrences of Camelops on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

232 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

41 formations

Palm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSt. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WSt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WKingsdown — 37.05°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WPauba — 33.90°N, 117.00°WGila Conglomerate — 32.84°N, 110.00°WGila Conglomerate — 32.58°N, 109.48°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.10°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.00°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.70°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.30°WTule — 34.51°N, 101.41°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WFloral — 50.80°N, 103.90°WFloral — 52.20°N, 106.70°WFloral — 52.10°N, 106.70°WCamp Rice — 32.00°N, 106.70°WBon Homme Gravel — 43.00°N, 97.40°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°WRiverbank — 38.60°N, 121.50°WTecopa Lake Beds — 36.10°N, 117.90°WTecopa Lake Beds — 36.00°N, 116.25°WTemecula Arkose — 33.90°N, 117.00°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WBallard — 37.20°N, 100.30°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WPalomas — 34.00°N, 107.00°WBlanco — 33.77°N, 101.28°W

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The named rock units Camelops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 132 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Camelops and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Camelops and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,211 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 223 sites for Camelops, 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

137 references

Each of the 232 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. 125 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 content3

Picture of Camelops

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Camelops hesternus · LACM:rlb:Z 2683

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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. Leidy 1854