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Lama Animal

Lama

Classification

Reign

Animalia

Branch

Chordata

Sub-ember.

Vertebrata

Class

Mammalia

Subclass

Theria

Infra-class

Eutheria

Order

Artiodactyla

Family

Camelidae

Genre

Lama

Binomial name

Lama glama
( Linnaeus , 1758 )

Geographical Distribution

A llama at the Machu Picchu

are available on

The white llama or llama is a camelid home to South America. The term "lama" is often used more broadly to apply to the four species that make up the animal near branch South American camelids: llamas White himself, the alpaca , the guanaco and vicuna (see for that the genus Lama ).

Moche vase, Peru, 100-300 AD. AD
Lombard Museum

Origin

Before the landing of the Spaniards on the South American continent, including the llama was the only pet. Used as a beast of burden, it was also prized for its fur and meat , but its maximum load is about twenty pounds, it can not be mounted.

Classification

The first written about the Lama compare it usually sheep. Yet it was realized very quickly her relationship with the camel , and therefore with the camels.

The paleontologists Joseph Leidy , Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh interpreted the discovery of extinct species of the Tertiary Period in the Americas, which brings light on the appearance of this family and their relations with other mammals. Originally, the lamas were not confined to that part of the American continent south of the Panama Canal as they are today. We found numerous traces dated Pleistocene in the region of the Rocky Mountains and in Central America , including some much larger than the current specimens. Many animals related to camels, showing mutations genetic and progressive series of changes, have been discovered in strata from the Pliocene to early Miocene. As no trace of camel has - so far - was discovered in excavations of the old continent, it is now accepted that the Americas are in their homeland, and some have moved into Asia , down to the south according to changes climate to become the camels. There are few mammals whose past paleontological was traced with equal success.

Features

Anatomy

Skull: Veterinary School of Alfort
anatomy

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge

The teeth of adults is:

1.1.2.3

3.1.2.2

for a total of 32 teeth.

In the jaw than there is a sharp and keen scoring along the premaxilla , followed by a real dog pointed, curved and sized on the front of the jaw. The isolated canine-like canine found in camels is not present. The molars that come in contact with each other are two very small premolars (the first being very rudimentary) and three broad molars, constructed generally like those of other camelids. In the lower jaw, three incisors are long and shaped like a spatula, and the outer are smaller. Besides these, there is a curved canine, followed after an interval of a simple conical premolar; then a continuous series consists of one premolar and three molars, which differ from those of the camel through a small column formed on the anterior outer edge.

The skull generally resembles that of the camel , its smaller explaining the cranial cavity and orbits relatively more developed and smaller cranial walls. The bones are shorter nose and wider, joined by the premaxilla.

Vertebrae :

cervical 7,
dorsal 12,
lumbar 7,
sacral 4,
caudal 15 to 20.

The ears are rather long and rounded. There is no dorsal hump. The feet are close, the toes are more separated than in camels, and each have their arch separate. The tail is short, and fur long and woolly.

In essential structural characteristics, and in general appearance and behavior, all animals of this genus closely resemble, and whether they should be regarded as belonging to one, two or more different species was the cause of much debate and controversy among naturalists.

Reproduction: the female ovulation is induced. There is not, as in other mammals, periods of "heat" and fertilization can occur in any season, subject to compliance with a follicular cycle. Gestation typically lasts 11 months but can reach 13. Parturition is fast. It generally occurs in late morning or early afternoon, the female remains standing.

Behavior

Cri du Lama Lama expressed by a variety of sounds, which may reflect the sadness, the caution of his fellow cons supposed danger, hostility towards a rival, or sexual satisfaction.

Llama spit in his defense (very rarely in humans, most often on its congeners). This spit is formed, in severe cases of gastric regurgitation viscous, more frequently, a kind of mist salivary he projects on the object of his wrath.

The llama is an animal that chews the cud but is not classified as ruminants.

Gallery

A male llama, Argentina, on a Inca ruin.
Domesticated llama
(Photo. Christophe Moustier)
Droppings Lama. The llama has a habit of making his stool in one place, unlike the goat swarms.
A flock of white llamas assists at sunset in the desert of Atacama , near San Pedro de Atacama , in Chile.