DAMASCUS, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Swiss researchers have discovered the 100,000-year-old remains of a previously unknown giant camel species in central Syria, the independent Syria-News website reported Saturday.

    Professor Jean-Marie Le Tensorer of the University of Basel was quoted as saying that the discovery is revolutionary for science and it was not known that the dromedary was present in the Middle East more than 10,000 years ago.

    Tensorer said the camel's shoulders stood three meters high and it was around four meters tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant, adding "nobody knew that such a species had existed."

    Meanwhile, 100,000-year-old human remains were also discovered nearby at the once water-rich site in the desert steppe of Kowm, a 20 km-wide gap between two mountain ranges that had a number of springs, according to Tensorer.

    The site, first surveyed in the 1960s, is known for evidence of a one million-year-old human settlement. Enditem