Yukon government buying 2 ancient camel skeletons

Budget documents tend to be light on colour and whimsy, so this item in Yukon's 2016 budget provoked a few double-takes:"$50,000 to purchase two ancient Arctic camel skeletons."

No joke, says Yukon governmentpaleontologist Grant Zazula.

"Yukon has a long and storied history with camel fossils," he said.

Paleontologistsand Klondike minershave been digging them out of the Northern permafrostfor decadesthough not often.

• Ice-age camel bones, found in Yukon, rearrange camel family tree

"They're incredibly rare.Ithink there's about 50 bones known that have ever been found in Alaska or Yukon, and that's in comparison to the tens of thousands of ice-age woolly mammothsand bisonand horses," Zazula said.

The newskeletons (not realbones, but rather replicas cast from an actual, completeskeleton found in California)willbe purchased by the Department of Tourism and Culture to help Zazula and others identify any new bone or fossil finds.

"We need other skeletons so when we find bones, we can kind of match them up.

"We have a comparative collection of things like moose and bison and Saiga antelope, but we don't have a good comparison of what a true ancient camel looks like."

A 'strange and fascinating' story

Radiocarbon dating suggests camels once prevalent in North Americaonly migrated into Alaska and Yukonduring a brief period about 100,000 years ago, when temperatures were warmer than usual. Few camels made the trip North.

"Camels are atthe top of my wish list for ancient fossils right now," said Zazula, who spends every summer digging in the Klondike region. "When we find them it's like Christmas, we are so excited."

The government is buying two skeletons so that one can be used forpaleontologicalresearchandthe other can form an exhibit somewhere in the territory.

Zazula saysmany people are surprised to learn camels once roamed the Yukon, so he makes no bones about it it's timeto share the "strange and fascinating" story.

"There's not a better way to do that than to geta skeleton out on display somewhere."