Hemiauchenia fossil map
Where fossils of Hemiauchenia have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 0 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 0 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Early mammals |
|---|---|
| Lived | 23.04 million years ago to the present (Aquitanian to Holocene) |
| Periods | Neogene, Quaternary |
| Family | Camelidae |
| Named by | Gervais and Ameghino 1880 |
| Fossil records | 544 occurrences at 179 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Canada, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile |
| Rock formations | txn:42513, Palm Spring, Bermont, Gila Conglomerate, Camp Rice, Alachua |
About Hemiauchenia
Hemiauchenia is an extinct genus of lamine camelids that evolved in North America in the Miocene epoch about 10 million years ago. This genus diversified and entered South America in the Late Pliocene about three to two million years ago, as part of the Great American Biotic Interchange. The genus became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene. The monophyly of the genus has been considered questionable, with phylogenetic analyses finding the genus to paraphyletic or polyphyletic, with some species suggested to be more closely related to living lamines (llamas and relatives) than to other Hemiauchenia species.
This genus gave rise to the genus Lama, to which modern lamines belong.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Hemiauchenia (revision 1381337073), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q1883304.
