Vampyrocamelus welshi

Vampyrocamelus welshi is an extinct camelid from the middle to late Miocene of North America and the only species of its genus Vampyrocamelus. It was a large, long-limbed animal, close in build to the giraffe camel Aepycamelus, with an average skull length of about 41 centimetres. Its distinguishing feature is in males, which carried very large fang-like upper canines and first premolars, a pairing that inspired the vampire-themed genus name. The species is known mostly from the Clarendon beds of Donley County, Texas, and nearby parts of Oklahoma, and rarely from the Ash Hollow Formation of Nebraska. Specimens had long been held in the Frick collections under an unpublished label, and the animal was formally named in 2026 by Marriott and colleagues in a revision of North American camelids; the species name honours the fossil camel researcher Ed Welsh.