CAMELS OF LONG AGO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

Very few people would be inclined to believe that the large and lordly camel is descended from an. animal not much bigger than a jack rabbit, but this, without much question, is it fact. This very small ancestor lived in the remote Eocene period, and had four complete toes on each foot and a neck and limbs of only moderate length. But in each epoch since the Eocene we find the camel family gradually increasing in size, and by slow degrees losing its toes and developing the soft, elastic pad which enables these animals" to walk with ease on the shifting sands of the desert or on the sharp, irregular surfaces of lava fields. Strange to say, the camel originated and reached its greatest size in North America, from which part of the world it has disappeared. An important discovery of the remains of fossil camels has recently been made in Western Nebraska, where nearly 100 skeletons of a small type of these creatures were found lying together. There was, no doubt, some special reason for these animals thus congregating to die. A possible explanation may be found in the known habits of the camel-like guanacos of South America, which wander about in herds of thousands and when night comes on lie down close to one another like sheep. Such a herd was once kept under observation, and it was noticed that when, in the morning, the guanacos moved oif, no. less than 100 were left on the ground dead of starvation and cold. It is supposed that the discovery in Nebraska represents part of a vast herd which perished in a similar maimer many hundreds of thousands of years ago. The skeletons were covered first by windblown sand and then by deposits laid down by a river, and so have been preserved in a fossil sta'te until to-day.