Western Camel
Camelops hesternus
🐪
Chordata
Mammalia
Artiodactyla
Camelidae
Camelops hesternus
A North‑American camel that thrived in Ice‑Age grasslands. Unlike today’s camels, this species lived on the Great Plains and ranged as far north as Alaska. Its fate was sealed during the terminal Pleistocene when climate change and human hunters arrived.
Description
Camelops was a large camelid reaching about 7 ft (~2.1 m) at the shoulder and weighing around 1 800 lb (~818 kg). It had two‑toed hooves and a long neck; paleontologists do not know whether it possessed humps. Fossils show it roamed from Alaska/Yukon to Mexico, inhabiting grasslands, open woodlands and wetlands. Pollen and plant‑remains from kill sites indicate a diet of saltbush, willow and grasses, and isotopic data suggest a grazing and browsing mixed diet. Camelops first appears in the Late Pliocene (around 3–4 Ma) and is thought to descend from earlier North American camelids that gave rise to Old World camels. The genus became abundant in western North America, living in small herds and adapting to cooler, seasonally arid climates. It vanished by the end of the Pleistocene.
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
1000
0.5
0.75
3.5
kg
m
m
m
Mixed Feeder
Herbivores – Grazers
Hunt History
Archaeological evidence shows that some Paleoindian groups hunted Camelops. At Wally’s Beach in Alberta, a Clovis‑age kill site dated to about 13 270–13 310 BCE, lithic tools and butchery marks were found with the remains of at least one camel; cut marks on cervical vertebrae and spiral fractures on ribs indicate disarticulation by humans. Elsewhere Camelops bones occur in Pleistocene deposits, but few show clear human modification. Human predation may have exacerbated climate‑driven declines.
1. Wally’s Beach, Alberta, Canada – butchered Camelops bones with Clovis tools and cut marks; radiocarbon dates ~13 270–13 310 BCE show humans killed and processed a camel.
2. Tule Springs fossil beds, Nevada – Camelops fossils (up to 38 % of large mammal remains) document the species’ dominance in Pleistocene wetlands; although human artifacts are scarce, the site contextualises the camel’s environment.
3. Rancho La Brea and other tar pits – Camelops bones recovered from Pleistocene tar seeps in California show its presence in diverse habitats, though these assemblages lack evidence of human hunting.
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Globally Extinct
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
12000
BP
Late Pleistocene
North America
Wiki Link
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
Medium (no obvious hump certainty)
Fat %
5
Est. Renderable Fat
50
kg
Targeted Organs
subcutaneous, marrow
Adipose Depots
Hump/backfat (when present), visceral; marrow
Preferred Cuts
back fat (if present), marrow
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
3