Posted Oct 08, 2006 at 06:38AM by Mabie A. Listed in: Paleontology Tags: Giants, anthropology
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modern-day camelGiants really did roam the earth some many hundreds of years ago. And no, these giants need not be just dinosaurs or some lurking water creature waiting to pounce on some unsuspecting smaller animal that would be their dinner.

Swiss researchers recently discovered the 100,000-year-old remains of what used to be an unknown giant camel species in central Syria. According to Professor Jean-Marie Le Tensorer of the University of Basel, the shoulders alone of the camel already stood at three meters high and the animal was around four meters tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant. That's big. And you can bet there was plenty of water stored in that hump.

Tensorer and his team have been excavating at the desert site in Kowm since 1999 and found the first traces of a big animal in 2003. However, it was only recently that they were able to confirm that it was indeed a camel after more bones from several parts of the same animal were recently discovered.

From the location of the camel remains, it appears that a group of humans killed it while it was drinking from a spring. They were able to conclude this from the 100,000-year-old human remains as well as some flint tools which were discovered nearby in the desert steppe, which was once rich with water. The human bones have been transported back to Switzerland, where they underwent anthropological analysis.


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