page_title: Camelops
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Camelops / Description
caption_attribution_description: Español: Ilustración del extínto Camello americano English: Illustration of the extinct Camelus hesternus from North America
context_page_description: Camelops is an extinct genus of camels that lived in Western North America, ranging from Alaska to Mexico, from the middle Pliocene to the end of the Pleistocene. It shares a common ancestor with the Old World dromedary and Bactrian camel, as well as a more distant common ancestor with the New World alpaca, guanaco, llama, and vicuña. Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek κάμελος and ὄψ, i.e. "camel-face".
context_section_description: Because soft tissues are generally not preserved in the fossil record, it is not certain if Camelops possessed a hump, like modern camels, or lacked one, like modern llamas. Because one-humped camels are now known to have evolved from two-humped camels, it would follow that Camelops, if it had humps, probably had two, as this would be the more parsimonious view. C. hesternus was about 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) tall at the shoulder, making it similar in height to modern Bactrian camels, yet was slightly heavier than modern Wild Bactrian camel, weighing about 800 kg (1,800 lb).
caption: Reconstruction of C. hesternus
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