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The ancestors of llamas are thought to have originated on the Great Plains of North America about 40 million years ago and subsequently migrated to South America about three million years ago during the Great American Interchange. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago), camelids were extinct in North America. [3]
Lama is a genus containing the South American camelids: the wild guanaco and vicuña and the domesticated llama, alpaca, and the extinct chilihueque.Before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, llamas, alpacas, and chilihueques were the only domesticated ungulates of the continent.
Guanacos have long been thought to be the parent species of the domesticated llama, which was confirmed via molecular phylogenetic analysis in 2001, although the analysis also found that domestic llamas had experienced considerable cross-hybridization with alpacas, which are descended from the wild vicuña.
The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. Camelids are even-toed ungulates classified in the order Artiodactyla, along with species including whales, pigs, deer, cattle, and antelopes.
The vicuña (Lama vicugna) or vicuna [3] (both / v ɪ ˈ k uː n j ə /, very rarely spelled vicugna, its former genus name) [4] [5] is one of the two wild South American camelids, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes; the other camelid is the guanaco, which lives at lower elevations.
Aug. 25—The animals were quiet when Kee and Sami Straits returned to their Albuquerque farm after a trip to Germany. Normally, one-eyed brown llama Dalai Llama — the "guardian" of QD Farms ...
Alpacas were domesticated thousands of years ago. The Moche people of Northern Peru often used alpaca images in their art. [6] Traditionally, alpaca were bred and raised in herds, grazing on the level meadows and escarpments of the Andes, from Ecuador and Peru to Western Bolivia and Northern Chile, typically at an altitude of 3,500 to 5,000 metres (11,000 to 16,000 feet) above sea level. [7]
View of llamas in the citadel of Machu Picchu. The llama and alpaca were especially important in the Andean economy. Llama: the resources provided by the llama were used to the maximum. Thus, its wool was spun to transform it into clothing for the people of the sierra, as the inhabitants of the coast used the cotton to make their clothing.