camels

camels

The camels (Camelus) constitute a genus of ungulates artiodactyla (with a pair of support fingers on each paw) that contains two species: the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), a hump and the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) of two humps. Both are natives of dry and desert areas of Asia. Both species are domesticated, providing milk and meat for human consumption and are draft animals. Humans have domesticated camels for thousands of years.

Camel name comes from the Greek kamelos from the Hebrew or Phoenician Gamal, "camel", possibly from a root meaning support or load (related to the Arab Jamala). extinct species of the genus were hesternus Camelus, Camelus gigas and Camelus sivalensis.

Camels are related (they have the same family) the four species of South American mammals: the llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuña.

Fossil evidence indicates that the ancestors of modern camels evolved in North America during the Paleogene period, Camelops, and then spread to many places in Asia and North Africa. Ancient people of Somalia, the Punts, the 1st domesticated camels well before 2000 B.C ..

Even with the existence of more than 13 million dromedaries today, they were extinct as wild animals. There is, however, a considerable wild population of about 32,000 living in central Australia's deserts, descendants of people who fled in the nineteenth century.