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Souria's Meeting Room
Started by crazyivan at 03-04-2010 08:23 AM. Topic has 3 replies.
  
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 03-04-2010, 08:23 AM
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crazyivan
 
Joined on 11-19-2005
Posts 1,605
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Extinct "Elephant Size" Camel Found in Syria
October 11, 2006
The bones of a huge extinct camel have been discovered in Syria, a joint Swiss-Syrian team announced last week.
The previously unknown species lived about a hundred thousand years ago
and was "as big as a giraffe or an elephant," the archaeologists say.
Based on comparisons between the ancient remains and modern-day
counterparts, researchers estimate that the animal stood 12 feet (3.6
meters) tall, making it almost twice the size of living camels.
The scientists also found humanoid bones at the desert site near Tadmur (Palmyra) and stone tools with the camel's remains (Palmyra photo).
The finds suggest that the massive dromedary—or single-humped camel—was hunted by prehistoric people, the researchers add.
"This is a big discovery, a revolution in science," prehistory professor Jean-Marie Le Tensorer told the Reuters news service.
Le Tensorer, of the University of Basel in Switzerland, led the Swiss side of the team,
Heba al-Sakhel, of the Syrian Department of Antiquities and
Museums in the capital city of Damascus, led the Syrian side of the
team.
"What we want to know now is, where did it come from and why
did it disappear, never to be seen again?" al-Sakhel told the
Associated Press (AP).
Camel Hunt
The team first noticed fragments of the ancient camel's remains
in 2003 at a site in the El Kowm area of central Syria, about 150 miles
(240 kilometers) northeast of Damascus (Syria map).
But the remains weren't identified until recently, when larger fossil
bones were recovered from an ancient spring that the team had been
excavating.
El Kowm is an area of desert steppe that lies between
two mountain ranges. The region is considered to be one of the oldest
centers of human settlement in the Near East.
The University of Basel's Le Tensorer says that, at that time, the
region would have been covered by savanna rather than desert and would
have supported herd animals such as antelope.
Archaeological remains dating back 750,000 years suggest that prehistoric people were attracted to the springs in El Kowm.
Hunter-gatherers likely attacked and killed the giant camel when it
visited one of these springs to drink, the researchers suggest.
Humanoid bones found near the camel's remains are thought to belong to modern man, Homo sapiens. But a tooth recovered from the site is similar to that of a Neandertal (often spelled "Neanderthal"), Le Tensorer says.
The bone fragments are now being analyzed in Switzerland, he says.
Ship of the Desert
According to Le Tensorer, the find suggests that dromedary
camels existed in the region up to 90,000 years earlier than previously
thought.
"It was not known that the dromedary was present in the Middle East more than 10,000 years ago," Le Tensorer said.
Some Syrian scientists say that the discovery shows that Syria may have been the birthplace of modern-day camels.
Bassam Jamous, head of antiquities at Syria's National Museum in
Damascus, says that Tadmur is likely where these so-called ships of the
desert first "emerged to the world."
(Related news: "In Sahara, Salt-Hauling Camel Trains Struggle On" [May 28, 2003].)
The camel species that lives today in the Middle East and North
Africa is the Arabian camel, which is thought to have been domesticated
thousands of years ago.
"Ordinary camels appeared in the region some 6,000 to 7,000 years ago," Le Tensorer told AP.
The earliest known reference to the one-humped Arabian camel is a pottery figure from Egypt, which dates back to about 3000 B.C.
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03-04-2010, 08:29 AM
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crazyivan
Joined on 11-19-2005
Posts 1,605
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Very Big and Very Old!Who knew that
giant camels inhabited the Syrian desert about 100,000 years ago?!
Actually, no one, until recently when the bones of a giant camel were
unearthed in the sands about 150 miles north of Damascus! The news --> -->
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How
big is “giant?” According to scientists, the camels stood “between
three and four yards high” which equates to between nine and twelve
feet high. Today’s camels stand about six feet at the shoulder and
about 7 feet at the top of their hump.
So how much larger was
this big variety of camel? About twice the height of the ones we see
today. Most people find our modern-day camels to be a fairly large
animal – one you have to look up to see. And if you’ve ever taken a
camel ride through the pyramids of Giza, or in Australia, you will
probably remember how very high up you were on that camel!
Comments
of tourists who have visited the pyramids of Egypt is pretty much the
same: that the camel and horse tenders have a variety of interesting
tricks designed to get more money out of your wallet. The most common
one I heard was that once you are safely mounted, the camel tender
decides he needs extra money (sometimes as much as $50 extra) to allow
you to dismount from his camel!
As you may recall, if you saw
Lawrence of Arabia, to dismount more easily, the camel is told to
kneel. A pragmatic British tourist refused to pay the extra money and
jumped off the camel, thereby saving the contents of his wallet. If you
are curious about the many ways that a camel tender will go after your
tourist money, take a peek at this web site.
One
hump or two? The bones of the giant camel show it to be of the one-hump
variety. It has been dubbed “The Syrian Camel” by its Swiss and Syrian
discoverers. If you are wondering which variety are often ridden in
that part of the world, it is the Camelus dromedarius – or Dromedary
camel, a native of northern Africa and western Asia.
While the Dromedary is sometimes referred to as the Arabian Camel. the Oakland, California Zoo’s website demurs, and says that, “The name ‘Dromedary’ is properly reserved for --> -->
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There is an escaped (feral) population of Dromedaries in Australia
numbering around 300,000! Maybe the giant camel should have packed his
humps and moved to Australia. It appears that the climate and food
there are what camels like best!
The Bactrian camel is your
basic two-humper. If you’re wondering how they differ from the
Dromedary, they have two humps, instead of one. They are native to the
steppes of eastern Asia. There are nearly 1.4 million domesticated
Bactrian camels and about 950 wild ones in northwest China and Mongolia (who have been placed on the critically endangered species list).
Bactrian
camels can drink up to 32 gallons of water at a time. It is thought
that they were domesticated (independently from the Dromedary) sometime
before 2500 b.c. in Northern Iran or Southwestern Turkestan. How would you like to be a camel tender for those big boys?!
Wild
Bactrian camels will drink saltwater slush, while domesticated camels
won’t touch the stuff. It is not known whether the camel’s body can
filter out the salt and use the water, or not. But then, the wild
camels don't have someone to provide water for them.
It is
assumed that the giant camels were not bred for human purposes,
although their size would have a more desirable "ship of the desert"
than their modern-day relatives.
Jean-Marie Le Tensorer, who
led the Swiss portion of the discovery team, says that humanoid bones
were discovered at a nearby site along with stone tools used by early
humans. “The bones—a fragment of an arm and a tooth—are, of course, of
the hunter of the giant camel,” said Le-Tensorer. He added that
“ordinary camels appeared in the region some 6,000-7,000 years ago.”
So, if you do the math, that comes out to around 3994 b.c. to 4994 b.c.
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03-07-2010, 09:06 PM
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Jedidiah777
Joined on 02-22-2006
Posts 781
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Interesting. Thanks for sharing the article.
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03-20-2010, 12:05 AM
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Jedidiah777
Joined on 02-22-2006
Posts 781
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Something more about these amazing animals... 
The most amazing camel
If I'm hungry, I eat almost anything - a leather bridle, a piece of rope, the tent of my owner, or even a pair of shoes. My mouth is so tough that not even a prickly cactus can hurt me. My hump weighs 80 pounds and doesn't contain water, instead it's full of fat.
My intelligent Creator designed me so that my body automatically uses this fat to nourish itself when I can't find anything to eat. It's often difficult to find water out here in the desert. Sometimes I have to wait 8 days until I eventually get something to drink. During that time, I don't look so great. My ribs stick out through my skin, and I can lose up to 225 pounds in weight. But when I finally find water, I drink up to 27 gallons in just 10 minutes and immediately gain those 225 pounds again. I was made for the hot, dry desert.
People use me as a means of transport because I have no trouble walking through the sand dunes. It's really easy with my special designed sand-shoes. My hoofs are wide, but they get even wider, expanding when I walk upon them so that I don't sink into the soft, drifting sand. Sometimes a fierce sand-storm howls through the desert, but that doesn't bother me at all.
My Master Designer placed special muscles in my nostrils which are able to close up to a certain extent, thus, keeping the sand out and, at the same time, allowing enough air to enter in for breathing.
My Designer also gave me long eyelashes which hang over my eyes and prevent the sand from blowing into them. Should it be the case that a grain of sand should get into my eyes, my Maker has provided me with an inner eyelid which automatically wipes the sand away from my eyeball, in the same way like a wind-screen wiper.
It's difficult for me to understand how some people say that I've evolved into what I now am. I'm a highly-technical dromedary camel, especially designed by my Maker for the desert, His name is Jesus.
He made a way for me to live in the desert. He also makes a way for those who follow Him from their whole hearts. (rw)
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