Aepycamelus is an extinct genus of camelid, formerly called Alticamelus in scientific literature. Its name is derived from the Homeric Greek , "high and steep" and ??????? - "camel"; thus, "high camel"; alticamelus in Latin.

Aepycamelus lived during the Miocene period (14-5 MYA) on the prairies of North America (Colorado, etc). It was a highly specialized animal. Its head was relatively small compared with the rest of its body its neck was long, as a result of lengthening of the cervical vertebrae and its legs were long and stilt-like, with the elbow and knee joints on the same level.

Aepycamelus walked on its toes only. They were transformed to cushioned plate like those of Recent camels.

Its strange body structure gives us plenty of information on its mode of life and habits. Aepycamelus obviously inhabited dry grasslands with groups of trees. It is presumed to have moved about singly or in small groups, like today's giraffes, and like them, browsed high up in the trees. In this respect it had no competitors, it survived a relatively long time, lasting throughout the entirety of the Miocene epoch, and died out prior to the start of the Pliocene, possibly due to climatic changes.

References

Benes, Josef. Prehistoric Animals and Plants. Pg. 248. Prague: Artua, 1979.

de:Aepycamelus es:Aepycamelus fr:Aepycamelus it:Aepycamelus nl:Aepycamelus ja:??????? pt:Aepycamelus zh:???

---

Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article