Australocamelus is an extinct genus of terrestrial

Terrestrial animal

Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land , as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water , or amphibians, which rely on a combination of aquatic and terrestrial habitats...

 herbivore

Herbivore

Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...

 the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Camelidae, endemic to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 during the Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 16.3—13.6 mya existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

Australocamelus was named by Patton (1969). Its type is Australocamelus orarius. It was synonymized subjectively with Oxydactylus

Oxydactylus

Oxydactylus, is an extinct terrestrial herbivorous genus of the tribe Camelini, family Camelidae, endemic to North America Oligocene through the Middle Miocene and in existence for approximately ....

 by Tedford et al. (1987). It was assigned to Camelidae by Patton (1969), Tedford and Barghoorn (1993) and Honey et al. (1998).

Morphology

A single specimen was examined for estimated body mass by M. Mendoza, C. M. Janis, and P. Palmqvist. The specimen was estimated to weigh 146.8 kg (323.6 lb).