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Remains of giant camel discovered in Syria
Mumbai Mirror ^ | October 8, 2006 | Reuters

Posted on 10/08/2006 7:58:20 AM PDT by aculeus

Damascus: Swiss researchers have discovered the 1,00,000-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 said. “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 high and it was around four metres tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant. Nobody knew that such a species had existed.”

Tensorer, who has been excavating at the desert site in Kowm since 1999, said the first large bones were found some years ago but were only confirmed as belonging to a camel after more bones from several parts of the same animal were recently discovered.

“We found the first traces of a big animal in 2003, but we were not sure it was a giant camel,” he said.

A group of humans apparently killed the camel while it was drinking from a spring at the once water-rich site in the desert steppe, said Tensorer.

The site was first surveyed in the 1960s.

“It was a savannah more or less,” Tensorer said. “The camels then ate probably what they eat today.”

Copyright 2005 BCCL. All rights reserved.


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: camel; camels; dromedary; fossil; godsgravesglyphs; india; paleontology
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To: Godebert

>>They misplaced a comma in the number, which is 100,000 not 1,000,000.<<

And added a zero.

Apparently.


21 posted on 10/08/2006 8:42:29 AM PDT by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Naziism was in 1937.)
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To: BunnySlippers

>>So much for the science writer at the Mumbai Mirror.<<

Just dang! And they used to be my most trusted source...


22 posted on 10/08/2006 8:43:12 AM PDT by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Naziism was in 1937.)
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To: orionblamblam

>>a camel being recognizable as a camel a mere million years ago is not that surprising.<<

I wasn't there. I wouldn't know.

I could speculate though, as many have. ;)


23 posted on 10/08/2006 8:44:07 AM PDT by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Naziism was in 1937.)
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Comment #24 Removed by Moderator

To: aculeus

This is a hoax. Somebody must have opened Hafez al-Assad's grave by mistake. He ruled Syria for a zillion years.


25 posted on 10/08/2006 8:48:08 AM PDT by melancholy (Now that we killed Abu Musaab Al Zarqawi, we are forced to listen to Abu John Al Murthawi.)
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To: pax_et_bonum; thackney
“Can you imagine? The camel’s shoulders stood three metres high and it was around four metres tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant. Nobody knew that such a species had existed.”

I believe this qualifies as a Camels of Mass Destruction ping.

This is a fairly low volume ping list, but an extremely important one.

I mean, what if that mad scientist on South Park could genetically engineer these camels back into today's population or something? And a bunch of them did a stampede through a populated area? There might be mass destruction.

Right?

26 posted on 10/08/2006 8:48:34 AM PDT by Allegra (Super Elastic Bubble Plastic!)
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To: montag813
News report: A group of humans apparently killed the camel while it was drinking from a spring at the once water-rich site in the desert steppe, said Tensorer."

"The key item of note in this story is that it was SWISS researchers who made this discovery in Syria--not Syria ones. Arab science is an oxymoron". - montage813

Maybeso, montage, but the key item of this report is the inference that humans were apparently out killing innocent camels 1,000,000 years ago.

What the hell? Humans weren't even born until 50,000 years ago! Maybe the report suffered in translation.
27 posted on 10/08/2006 8:48:54 AM PDT by the final gentleman
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To: RobRoy

I'm wondering how this turned into an Darwinism/Creationism thread?

Darwinism ALWAYS comes down to 'magic dust' and all of us, and the giant camels, evolving from rocks. It's the stupidest religion ever conceived by man.


28 posted on 10/08/2006 8:48:54 AM PDT by Mojave Mark (The Democrats... gravitas free since '63)
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To: wbmstr24
no, considering you ASSUME life goes back 3.5 billion years, a camel is still camel...plus you have no antecedents of these camels, ASSUMING your 3.5 billion years...another blow to the house of cards, known as evolutionism.....

Are you sure? Did you check before you spewed all that?

Let's establish a simple ground rule before we examine the truth of your statements. Try not to follow this outline in your answers, as most people can spot the difference between there being no fossil evidence and someone refusing to accept the fossil evidence.

29 posted on 10/08/2006 8:50:49 AM PDT by VadeRetro (A systematic investigation of nature does not negotiate with crackpots.)
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To: aculeus

"The villains have such a big head start Sheik, how will you ever catch them?"

"Oh, I'll take the big camel."


30 posted on 10/08/2006 8:51:26 AM PDT by mrsmith
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To: Godebert

Hmm...it does appear so.


31 posted on 10/08/2006 8:52:14 AM PDT by MineralMan (Non-evangelical Atheist)
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To: Allegra
Camels of Mass Destruction

LOL!!!

32 posted on 10/08/2006 8:52:43 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Mojave Mark

>>It's the stupidest religion ever conceived by man.<<

Whenever something really old is found that was once alive, it becomes a crevo thread. :)


33 posted on 10/08/2006 8:52:56 AM PDT by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Naziism was in 1937.)
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To: Allegra

"I believe this qualifies as a Camels of Mass Destruction ping. "

LOL....I just want to know if this is a one or two hump camel....size matters


34 posted on 10/08/2006 8:55:03 AM PDT by Kimmers
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To: wbmstr24
(but then again, dont worry, this will either be 'retro-fitted' into the scheme and hailed as more evidence, using the Evolutionism Handy Dandy Taffy Puller, to shoehorn the damn thing into the theory, or it will be quietly shelved with the other previous 'earthshattering' finds....

Faunal succession was in the data before anybody "believed in it." It is accepted now because it was in the evidence, even back when everybody was a creationist. If there had been an "earthshattering" or whatever find, the appropriate thing would have shattered.

35 posted on 10/08/2006 8:59:36 AM PDT by VadeRetro (A systematic investigation of nature does not negotiate with crackpots.)
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To: goldstategop

"The Mother Of All Camels Alert "

You guys think this huge camel is an amazing find, wait till they find the Arab who was humping it.


36 posted on 10/08/2006 9:06:37 AM PDT by FastCoyote
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To: aculeus
A group of humans apparently killed the camel

A million years ago. Yet, some don't know who won the 2004 Presidential election.

37 posted on 10/08/2006 9:10:27 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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Comment #38 Removed by Moderator

To: aculeus

I don't get all this creation hub-bub. If you're already going to posit the existence of God, you're probably going to assume His omnipotence, right? If He decided to create a tree right this minute, out of thin air, it would be indistinguishable from any other tree that grew from a seed, because of that omnipotence. If you examined it thouroughly you'd say to yourself, "Yep, that oak tree definitely came from an acorn." Why should it be different for a whole universe?


39 posted on 10/08/2006 9:31:16 AM PDT by Eepsy
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To: aculeus

There are sooooo many jokes that could come about from this.


40 posted on 10/08/2006 9:39:48 AM PDT by nonliberal (Graduate: Curtis E. LeMay School of International Relations)
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