On Monday, October 9, 2006, the Associated Press was widely disseminating the news that a 13 feet tall camel — double the size of the modern-day camel — has been discovered in Syria. The bones, above, clearly show, compared to the modern camel, this animal was a big one.

The giant camel apparently “poses a revolution in the world of archaeological discoveries,” according to Bassam Jammous, director general of the Antiquities and Museum Department in Syria. He also said the Syrian desert “is the first origin of the camel.”

Dating back 100,000 years, the fossil bones were discovered by a joint Syrian-Swiss archaeological team at the site of al Hemel in the Palmyra region about 155 miles northeast of Damascus, the state-run Tishrin Daily reported on Saturday, October 7.

The timing of this “new” announcement is strange, as the discovery of the bones was first reported in 2005.