Ancient camels are as big as an elephant

Ancient hunters hunted giant camels, as tall as elephants today, in the Syrian desert tens of thousands of years ago. Archaeologists are investigating where these camels come from and why they are extinct.

(Photo: msn) This giant monster existed 100,000 years ago and many of its skeletons were found this year in the desert 241 km north of Damascus.

The animal is about 2.7-3.6 m tall, twice as big as today's camels, and stands on the shoulders of African elephants.

"They are camel but very big and tall," said researcher Jean-Marie Le Tensorer.

"What we want to know is where they come from, and why they disappear. Did they migrate from Asia to Africa?" Said the head of the research group Heba al-Sakhel.

Le Tensorer said that the ancient human bones and stone tools used by humans were also found with camel bones, dating back 100,000 years.

"The bones of a arm and a tooth certainly belong to a camel hunter. He may have followed his prey to a stream and drank water there," Le Tensorer said. "Ordinary camels appear in the Middle East about 6,000-7,000 years ago and this is the first time we have an extremely old wild species."

MT