Camel fossil discovered by Green River in 1987 now known to be 33,000 years old

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Camel fossil discovered along Green River in 1987 now known to be 33,000 years old
Sorina Trauntvein
KTVX
Mon, August 25, 2025 at 10:36 PM EDT
2 min read



Camelops hesternus along the Green River near Split Mountain 33,000 years ago. (Friends of the Utah Field House/Utah State Parks, © Brian Engh)


VERNAL, Utah (ABC4) — New information about a fossil found nearly 40 years ago has been unveiled after radiocarbon testing. The fossil belongs to an ancient camel native to Utah and North America, and is much older than scientists expected.

According to a press release from the Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of State Parks, in 1987, a bone was found buried near the Green River. It was brought to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, where it was identified as the shin bone of the extinct Camelops hestemus by then Park Manager Alden Hamblin and retired Bureau of Land Management paleontologist and mammal specialist Greg McDonald.

At that time, most of the oldest fossils from this ancient camel in Utah and surrounding states were no older than 20,000 years old. Recently, a radiocarbon age on the bone revealed that it was actually around 33,000 years old.

Camelops hesternus along the Green River near Split Mountain 33,000 years ago. (Friends of the Utah Field House/Utah State Parks, © Brian Engh)


33,000 year old tibia (shin bone) of Camelops hesternus from near Vernal, Utah. (John Foster/Utah State Parks)


“The only other dated Utah Camelops, and most of those in the region that have actually been radiometrically dated, are from less than 20,000 years ago, almost 10,000 years ago,” Utah Field House Curator John Foster is quoted in the release. “We expected it to be from around 10,000 years ago, maybe 15,000 if we were lucky.”

According to the press release, Camelops hestemus was a distant ancestor of the Arabian and Bactrian camels that we’re familiar with today. Camelops lived in North America between 3 million and 10,000 years ago. When Ice Age mammals such as horses, mammoths, and ground sloths began disappearing from North America, this ancient camel went away too.

“We have records of early camels in this region from tens of millions of years ago,” Utah Field House Park Manager Steve Sroka is quoted. “They probably originated here in North America.”

With the knowledge that Camelops hestemus were living in Utah around 33,000 years ago, scientists are now aware that these camels were living here “just before the last glacial maximum during the Ice Ages,” the press release says. At that time, conditions in Utah would have been “noticeably colder and wetter than they are today.”

Following this new finding, a team of independent scientists and Utah State Parks scientists published their study in the “Historical Biology” journal this summer.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/camel-fossil-discovered-along-green-023622524.html