''Procamelus'' is an extinct genus of

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

endemic to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...

. It lived from the Middle to Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

16.0—5.3 mya, existing for approximately . The name is derived from the Greek πρό, meaning "before" or denoting priority of order, and κάμελος ("camel"), thus meaning "fore-camel", "early camel" or "predecessor camel". Alticamelus

It had long legs designed for speed, and was about in height at the shoulder, slightly smaller than a modern

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with othe ...

. Unlike modern camelids, it had a pair of small

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

teeth in the upper jaw. The remaining teeth were large and adapted for eating tough vegetation. The shape of the toes suggests that it possessed foot pads, like modern camels, unlike earlier forms of camelid, which generally had hooves. This would have helped it walk over relatively soft ground. It had a straighter neck than ''

Oxydactylus ''Oxydactylus'' is an extinct genus of camelid endemic to North America. It lived from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene (28.4–13.7 mya), existing for approximately . The name is from the Ancient Greek οξύς (oxys, "sharp")and δ ...

'' or ''

Aepycamelus ''Aepycamelus'' is an extinct genus of camelids that lived during the Miocene 20.6–4.9 million years ago, existing for about . Its name is derived from the Homeric Greek , "high and steep" and κάμηλος – "camel"; thus, "high camel"; '' ...

''.

References

Prehistoric camelids Prehistoric even-toed ungulate genera Miocene even-toed ungulates Zanclean extinctions Miocene mammals of North America Aquitanian genus first appearances Barstovian Clarendonian Hemphillian Fossil taxa described in 1858 Taxa named by Joseph Leidy {{paleo-eventoedungulate-stub