Camelops Hesternus Skull Replica

$1,164.00

Plant remains found in the teeth of the Rancho La Brea Camelops hesternus fossils further reveal that rather than being limited to grazing, this species likely ate mixed species of plants, including coarse shrubs growing in coastal southern California.

Description

Camelops Hesternus Skull Replica measures 22 inches. Camelops Hesternus Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA. Cast of an original from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Foundation, Page Museum specimen. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

Camelops Hesternus or Yesterdays camel is an extinct genus of camels that lived in Western North America from the middle Pliocene to the end of the Pleistocene. It shares a common ancestor with the Old World dromedary and Bactrian camel (making it a true camel).

Because soft tissues are generally not preserved in the fossil record, it is not certain if Camelops Hesternus or Yesterdays camel possessed a hump, like modern camels, or lacked one, like modern llamas.

Because one-humped camels are now known to have evolved from two-humped camels, it would follow that Camelops, if it had humps, probably had two, as this would be the more parsimonious view. C. hesternus was about 2.2 m (7 ft. 3 in) tall at the shoulder, making it similar in height to modern Bactrian camels. It was slightly heavier than modern Wild Bactrian camel, weighing about 1,800 lb.

Plant remains found in the teeth of the Rancho La Brea C. hesternus fossils further reveal that rather than being limited to grazing, this species likely ate mixed species of plants, including coarse shrubs growing in coastal southern California.

Camelops probably could travel long distances, similar to modern camel species. Whether or not Camelops or Yesterdays camel could survive for long periods without water, as with extant camels, is still unknown; this may have been an adaptation that occurred much later, after camelids migrated to Asia and Africa.

During the late Oligocene and early Miocene periods, camels or Yesterdays camel apparently underwent swift evolutionary change, resulting in several genera with different anatomical structures, ranging from those with short limbs, those with gazelle-like bodies, and giraffe-like camels with long legs and long necks.

This rich diversity decreased until only a few species, such as Camelops hesternus, remained in North America, before going extinct entirely around 11,000 years ago.

By the end of the Pleistocene, with the extinction of Paracamelus and Titanotylopus, Camelops or Yesterdays camel was the only true camel remaining in North America and possibly both Americas.

Camelops’s extinction was part of a larger North American extinction in which native horses, mastodons, and other camelids also died out.

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Additional information

Weight 12 lbs
Camelops Hesternus Skull

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Camelidae
Tribe: Camelini
Genus: †Camelops
Species: †Camelops kansanus
Conservation Status: Extinct