Remains of giant camel discovered in Syria

Damascus: Swiss researchers have discovered the 1,00,000-year-old remains of a previously unknown giant camel species in central Syria. “This is a big discovery, a revolution in science,” Professor Jean-Marie Le Tensorer of the University of Basel said. “It was not known that the dromedary was present in the Middle East more than 10,000 years ago.”“Can you imagine? The camel’s shoulders stood three metres high and it was around four metres tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant. Nobody knew that such a species had existed.”Tensorer, who has been excavating at the desert site in Kowm since 1999, said the first large bones were found some years ago but were only confirmed as belonging to a camel after more bones from several parts of the same animal were recently discovered.“We found the first traces of a big animal in 2003, but we were not sure it was a giant camel,” he said.A group of humans apparently killed the camel while it was drinking from a spring at the once water-rich site in the desert steppe, said Tensorer.The site was first surveyed in the 1960s.“It was a savannah more or less,” Tensorer said. “The camels then ate probably what they eat today.”