Saturday, October 07, 2006
Remains of giant 100,000-year-old camel discovered in Syria
Damascus, Syria, October 6 2006 (Reuters) - Swiss researchers have discovered the 100,000-year-old remains of a previously unknown giant camel species in central Syria.
'This is a big discovery, a revolution in science,'. Professor Jean-Marie Le Tensorer of the University of Basel told Reuters. 'It was not known that the dromedary was present in the Middle East more than 10,000 years ago.'
'Can you imagine? The camel's shoulders stood three metres (yards) high and it was around four metres tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant. Nobody knew that such a species had existed.'
A group of humans apparently killed the camel while it was drinking from a spring, said Tensorer, adding that 100,000-year-old human remains were discovered nearby...
...The human bones were transported to Switzerland, where they underwent anthropological analysis...
..."The bone is that of a homo sapiens, or modern man, but the tooth is extremely archaic, similar to that of a Neanderthal. We don't know yet what it is exactly." said Tensorer. [Neandertal]
Continued at: Remains of giant camel discovered in Syria
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Also reported by SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency): "Huge Camel Lived 100,000 Years Before in the Syrian Desert"
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