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1. The oldest known camel is Protylopus, appeared 40-50 million years ago (Eocene) in North America. It had the size of a rabbit and lived in forests. Later, camels spread to the savanna and increased their size. In Oligocene, 35 million years ago, Poebrotherium had the size of a roe deer, but already resembled a camel.

Between 24 and 12 million years ago, various types of camels evolved. Stenomylus was a gazelle like camel. Alticamelus, which lived 10 to 2 million years ago, had a long neck similar to a giraffe ones. Procamelus, just 1.2 m tall (like a modern llama) evolved in the Camelus genus (to which modern camels belong). Camelus passed from North America in Asia through Behringia 2-3 million years ago. 2 million years ago, the ancestors of lama and vicugna passed into the Andes coming from North America. The last camel surviving the cradle of the camel evolution, North America, was Camelops hesternus, which disappeared 12-10,000 years ago together with the whole megafauna of North America (mammoths, mastodons, giant sloth and saber toothed cats).

In 2005, scientists discovered in Syria a fossil dromadery species twice the size of the modern species.