One Macrauchenia raising its head above the rest of the herd


The first Macrauchenia skeleton was actually discovered by Charles Darwin on a stop-over on his famous journey on board The Beagle. Since then many more remains have been found in the Lujan formation in Argentina. Although this animal looked like it should be a member of the camel family, it was actually related to a group of animals that no longer exists - the litopterns. Its strange skull suggests that it had a muscular proboscis. Little work has been done on Macrauchenia, but its ankle joints and shin bones seem to be adapted for extreme mobility, allowing it to twist and turn to avoid pursuers at high speed.

Scientific name: Macrauchenia

Rank: Genus

Common names:

long llama

Watch video clips from past programmes (2 clips)




Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

When they lived


What their world was like

Ice age Ice age
The last ice age hasn't ended, the climate has just warmed up a bit causing the ice sheets to retreat. When the ice was more extensive, our climate was very different.


  1. Life
  2. Animals
  3. Vertebrates
  4. Mammals
  5. Litopterna
  6. Macraucheniidae
  7. Macrauchenia