Many people think of camels as being associated with the deserts of Africa and Asia, but for the first 36 million years of their fossil record, the camelids were confined to North America. Stenomylus was a widely distributed genus of North American camel; it first appears in the fossil record in the middle Oligocene, around 27 million years ago, and became extinct in the Middle Miocene, around 16 million years ago. It was a small animal, standing around 24” high at the shoulder, with gazelle-like proportions; it probably occupied an antelope-type ecological niche, living in more open habitats. Unlike modern camels, which have broad, padded toes suitable for a pacing stride, Stenomylus’s small, pointed toes probably carried sharp, deer-like hooves.

The AMNH has a large collection of complete skeletons of Stenomylus from Agate Springs in western Nebraska. These seem to be members of a herd of camels which died around 22 million years ago, possibly in a drought, and whose bodies were buried by windblown sand. These skeletons are on display in the Museum’s Hall of Advanced Mammals.