SUBORDER TYLOPODA: CAMELS

This suborder is intermediate between the Suina and the Ruminantia.

All living tylopods are members of the family Camelidae, but there were several interesting extinct families:

• Cainotheriidae: a family of rabbit and hare-like tylopods from Europe.
• Protoceratidae: a family of horned tylopods, very like the horned pecorans in the Suborder Ruminantia.
• Merycoidodontodae: a family of sheep-sized tylopods, similar to large hyraxes. They lived in large herds in the open habitats of North America.

FAMILY CAMELIDAE

XH19-8.2 Camel (Camelus sp.) skull.

Originally, camels were found only in North America, but they migrated elsewhere in the Pleistocene. Both modern members of the genus Camelus occur in the Old World.

The dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) is very widespread, due to its domestication, although no wild population remains. The bactrian ( C. bactrianus) camel is less widely used by man, and only a few wild herds remain in central Asia. As long as the nomads of Asia and north Africa remain, camels probably have a secure future.

Dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) camels with their owners in Ethiopia.

The camel is renowned for its adaptations to desert life:

• it rarely sweats and produces little urine and dry fæces.
• 30 gallons can be drunk all in one go.
• the hump consists of fat deposits for energy storage.
• the thick coat insulates against both temperature extremes.
• it can tolerate a body temperature 8šC higher than normal.
• nostril cavities in the skull moisten inhaled air.

Members of the Camelidae have:

• less fusion of lower leg bones than ruminants;
• canines still present (lower canines not incisor-like);
• lost the upper incisors;
• a chambered stomach, but less complex than in ruminants.

Furthermore, the camels showed a reduction in the lateral toes far earlier than the ruminants, with the 2nd and 5th toes now completely absent they display a very advanced foot structure.

XH19-6.1. Llama glama skull.

Llamas at Edinburgh Zoo

The llama, and the related alpaca, were both domesticated around 4,500 years ago in South America. The llama is a beast of burden; the alpaca provides wool. It is not known whether they were ever wild. They may have been bred from wild species of Llama: either the mountain dwelling vicuna or the lowland guanaco. 50 million guanaco were once found in Patagonia alone: today there are only 500,000. None of these species have humps like the camels.

Camels are used as beasts of burden throughout North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.