Researchers find fossils of new type of European camel

Spanish researchers said Monday they have discovered evidence of a previously unknown type of camel which lived in Europe six million years ago.

The team from the University of La Rioja found 191 fossilised footprints belonging to a group of between 10 and 15 individuals at a site in the eastern Spanish region of Murcia.

The animal, which they named Paracamelichnum Jumillensis, lived in the Upper Miocene period some six million years.

It was "very similar to the present-day camel" but "of a genus and species unknown until now," the researchers said.

The results of the research were published in the International Journal for Plant and Animal Traces.

(c) 2009 AFP