Canadiana Shorts: Camels Come From Canada

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Before camels were masters of the desert, they were masters of the snow.

There weren't any great-looking Canada-focused maps depicting the time periods we cover in this short, so we purchased the rights to use a stylized topographical map and then photoshopped it to look similar to the diagrams we found for the ice age(s) and late Miocene epoch. The maps are far from perfectly accurate, but we tried to get it pretty close—specifically on the coastlines. For instance, the placement and size of the lakes in North America varied constantly across the millions of years we scroll through. There were also multiple ice ages that came and went, of course.

We reverse back in time to around 7 million years ago when discussing the Yukon Giant Camel—that date may not be perfectly accurate. Various sources specify that the Paracamelus migrated across Beringia anywhere from 10 to 5 million years ago. We decided to split the difference and keep it simple. The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre states that the migration may have occurred "as early as 5 million years ago." When you are dealing with time periods so enormous in scope, it's hard to be entirely precise, so we implore you to read up on the subject and come to your own conclusion.

While there is consensus that the features that make camels suited for arid climates originated in snowy colder climates, there is debate regarding the evolution of their hooves. Camels don't gallop in the same way horses do, they have a strictly pacing gait—which means both of the legs on one side move at the same time. This can be really unstable, especially for large and wide animals like camels. So, it's possible that the width of the hoof evolved in response to their pacing gait—the wider the foot, the more stable the sway side-to-side.

To our knowledge, it's surprising to many to learn that camels originated in North America. The same goes for their distant relatives the Llama and Alpaca. Dromedaries, Bactrian camels, Llamas and Alpacas all came from a common ancestor in North America 45 million years ago called the Protylopus, a tiny deer-like mammal that lived in thick ancient rainforests. Millions of years later, during the Miocene, there was a camelid explosion and it ultimately led to some camelids moving North, and others moving South—those were the ancestors to Llamas and Alpacas. Strangely, the modern-day species of camelids live in the inverse direction of their origin point, which is why many don't realize camels evolved in North America.

You may notice that the extinction of the Western Camel coincides with another major migration in the world's history—the great Paleolithic human migration across the Bering Land Bridge to North America that occurred in earnest sometime around 14,000 years ago. While the camels had gone one way and assured their survival through evolution, the humans went the other and populated the entirety of the Americas. These Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were highly skilled, with the perfect tools to hunt Western Camels along with other Megafauna. While it is a theory that the Camelops extinction came at the hand of these new occupants, it seems pretty difficult to argue against it—especially since camel bones have been found at prehistoric camp sites next to firepits. But it's safe to say humans played at least some role in the end of camels roaming the Americas.

A small note about the High Arctic Camel: officially it's related to the Yukon Giant Camel, but apparently not identical. It is a Paracamelus though. This is why we gave it its own label. It lived on Ellesmere Island at the same time, the fossil dates to 3.4 million YA.

And no, Adam is not green-screened into a desert scene—that's the Carcross Desert, near Whitehorse, labeled usually as the "world's smallest desert." We are aiming to put together a little montage explainer video about it soon and we will share it on Patreon along with our social channels.
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We're back with a new Short! Sorry for the wait! We are working on getting the funding to go shoot another huge batch of episodes but will post videos from the backlog as we finish them. Please check the description for clarifications and more camel-related trivia! Thanks for watching!

Canadiana
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It’s refreshing to see videos from Canadiana after a year, cheers

rock
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Another trait that they developed to help them with the snow is their very long legs. It is actually really helpful in the summers too because a lot of the area is either swampy or densely packed with low brush. Similar to trying to get through the jungle, people use tools to cut through all the vines. Except with all the brush in the North, the tangled mess of interwoven branches are only a metre or two thick, hugging the ground. Long legs are super helpful getting around. Other animals that still live here in the Yukon also have long legs. Especially the larger animals. Moose and the Local Timber wolves both very long legs. Helpful for getting through the deep snow.

PlayNowWorkLater
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I can't tell you how happy I am to see you guys back. And also good to see your quality is impeccable as always. Keep it up!

AmokCanuck
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30% bigger! Sounds like an ad for some reason ;)
This was fascinating, and a really well-executed ~3 min vid.

LFTRnow
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Wow, this is something I had no clue about. You guys do great content, we'll support you inspite of the wait, so please keep it up.

yoshipercussion
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Awesome! Good to see a new video. Please continue your great work. Best canadian Channel I have come across.

homertheconqueror
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Fantastic! Love you channel. Thank you

aaronk
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Oh my God this is amazing i love Canada and thinking about Canada

funtimeadventures
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So stoked to see this! Adore this channel, thanks for the new video. ♥️🤘♥️🤘

kerrbear
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Glad there's some new content! I love the videos and have showed them to countless people. Keep on keeping on! You're doing spectacular

williamberdusco
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Absolutely amazing as usual!!! SO glad your back !!!!

sydneybujold
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camels in northern Canada, weird to think I could have left my home and run into a herd of camels.

thejadedrabbitTJR
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Awesome. New here...
That had such perfect 'House Hippo ' vibes, I had to go read the Description, cool, what a great read. 👍 Nice Work, Cheers

thebandplayedon..
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Awesome! I was so happy to see a new Video from you!

johnrocher
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Don't you wish we still had these big furry ancient camel relatives and could ride 'em around the in far north? Then again, maybe they'd be too wild in that ecosystem to tame, even if they were still around. What's interesting to me is that Canada has so many big deer-like species that are massive in the way that Camels are massive but aren't evolutionarily related. With their incredible height and huge toothy snouts, I was ready to find out that camels were related to Moose, or elk, or caribou--nope, not particularly closely anyway. The Camel-related branch of the evolutionary tree branched off of other such similar animals extremely early, so their related to llamas and alpacas, but you knew that. Similar adaptions to cold lead to Canada's massive deer-like quadrupeds, I guess.

kittycatcitycat
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glad that the channel isn't dead.

aaronstanley
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OMG I'm SO HAPPY you're back <3 !!
This is my favorite Canadian History channel right now on YouTube. Thanks for making more content!

NathanaelNewton
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Just found you!

Love your shows! 🤗

mrliver
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Great short guys ! and gals ! love your stuff keep up the great work

k.n.v.b
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