VERNAL, Utah (ABC4) — New information about a fossil found nearly 40 years ago has been unveiled after radiocarbon testing. The fossil belongs to an ancient camel native to Utah and North America, and is much older than scientists expected.

According to a press release from the Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of State Parks, in 1987, a bone was found buried near the Green River. It was brought to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, where it was identified as the shin bone of the extinct Camelops hestemus by then Park Manager Alden Hamblin and retired Bureau of Land Management paleontologist and mammal specialist Greg McDonald.

At that time, most of the oldest fossils from this ancient camel in Utah and surrounding states were no older than 20,000 year

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