Camelidae

/kəˈmɛlɪˌdeɪ/ noun

Definition

The biological family of hoofed mammals that includes camels, llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicuñas.

Etymology

From 'camel' plus the Linnaean taxonomic suffix '-idae' (used to denote biological families). Established in zoological taxonomy to classify all species descended from a common camelid ancestor.

Kelly Says

Camelidae is one of those rare animal families with both Old World members (camels in Africa/Asia) and New World members (llamas and alpacas in South America) because they're all descendants of animals that walked across the Bering land bridge.

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