Ronald Barr age 14. of Webster Texas
What family does the camel belong?
Camelidae is an old old family of North America This is where the camel family got its start. Forty million years ago all the world’s camels were North American. They chewed the grasses They shared the continent with the collie sized ancestors of the horse. They were small. They were more like their descendants of South America. the llamas„
A million years ago some members of the family bad crossed over land bridges into Asia. Others had gone down into South America. Their original home was deserted. Today the big camels of Asia and Africa are domesticated beasts of burden„ Their South American cousins are smaller. They are the llamas the alpacas the guanacos and the vicunas.
Camels are a sub‑family of the great clan Artiodaotyla. ‑ the even‑toed ones. These animals have no tirst and often nip second toe. They walk in the third and fourth toe of each foot. There are three sub‑families in the even toed clan. One family distant cousin to the camel includes the pig and the big mouthed hippo. This family does not chew the cud.
Another family includes the sheep the cattle and the tall giraffe. These distant cousins are cud chewers. They have no upper front teeth and their stomachs are in three or four section.
Our camel family also has another name. It is Tylopodas which means knobby feet. Being true artisdaotylsf each foot is really a special development of the third and fourth toes. The whole foot spreads out wide. It is soled with thick cushions and bears hooves like nails. These feet prevent the camel from sinking in the sand.. The two‑humped: Asia camel leas soles tough enough to take him over tike rocky Gobi desert. ‑The one‑bumped dromedary of Africa is not quite so well padded. But he can still stride over the sandy Sahara with no trouble at all.
The South American camel cousins are fond of mountainsides and grass: slopes. There are four of the none of them have humps and all are smaller than the big camels. Best known is the llama. This gentle creature has carried has carried mans burden since the days of the ancient Incas. He was much cherished in old Peru.' Only the male carries burdens. Cloth is woven from the creature's long.. silky hair.
Still better cloth is woven from the hair of the alpaca. This fellow's soft coat often grows two feet long. It just brushes the ground when he stands. up. Both the llama and the alpaca are domestic animals. Few if any.. are ever found in the wild state.
The guanacos however‑.. runs ‑wild over a large part of the continent. He lives in herds' chewing the grass on the slopes of Bolivia Peru and Chile. He even lives in the Cape Horn region„ He is a swimmer and is often seen swimming from island to island across the coast there.
Rarest of the camel family is the vicuna. His coat is the softest of any hoofed animal. Only the ancient Incas were allowed to wear cloth made from the fibers. It was so cherished that to kill a vicuna meant the death penalty for the killer. Some are tame.. some run wild high in the Andes.