When you picture camels, you might think of humped inhabitants of deserts in the Middle East.

But camels didn’t always have humps or traverse sand dunes. They started off the size of a beagle, but with much longer legs and neck, and had no humps or bumps. They first appeared in subtropical forests in North America, during the Eocene Epoch.

From there, early camels traveled long journeys, with growing bodies and changing feet, until they became two distinct evolutionary lines.

Some migrated over the Isthmus of Panama to South America and evolved into modern day llamas, vicunas, alpacas, and guanacos.

Others used the land bridge across the Bering Strait to cross to Asia and eventually to Africa. Along the way, they evolved into the camels we know today.