Editing Bactrian camel (section)

== Taxonomy ==
{{cladogram|title=|caption=Phylogenetic relationships of domestic Bactrian camels compared to living and recently extinct camels<ref name="Yuanetal2024">{{Cite journal|last1=Yuan |first1=Junxia |last2=Hu |first2=Jiaming |last3=Liu |first3=Wenhui |last4=Chen |first4=Shungang |last5=Zhang |first5=Fengli |last6=Wang |first6=Siren |last7=Zhang |first7=Zhen |last8=Wang |first8=Linying |last9=Xiao |first9=Bo |last10=Li |first10=Fuqiang |last11=Hofreiter |first11=Michael |last12=Lai |first12=Xulong |last13=Westbury |first13=Michael V. |last14=Sheng |first14=Guilian |date=May 2024 |title=Camelus knoblochi genome reveals the complex evolutionary history of Old World camels |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982224005244 |journal=Current Biology |volume=34 |issue=11 |pages=2502–2508.e5 |language=en |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.050|pmid=38754423|bibcode=2024CBio...34.2502Y |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
{{clade
|label1=Camelidae
|1={{clade
|1=[[Lamini]] (llamas)
|label2=[[Camelini]]
|2={{clade
|1={{extinct}}''[[Camelops]]''
|label2=''[[Camelus]]''
|2={{clade
|1=''[[Camelus dromedarius]]'' (dromedary)
|2={{clade
|1={{extinct}}''[[Camelus knoblochi]]''
|2=''[[Camelus ferus]]'' (wild Bactrian camel)
|3='''''Camelus bactrianus''''' (domestic Bactrian camel)
}}}}}}}}}}|align=left}}The Bactrian camel shares the [[genus (biology)|genus]] ''[[Camelus]]'' with the [[dromedary]] (''C.&nbsp;dromedarius'') and the [[wild Bactrian camel]] (''C.&nbsp;ferus''). The Bactrian camel belongs to the family [[Camelidae]].<ref name = MSW3>{{MSW3 Artiodactyla | id = 14200112 | pages=645–646 }}</ref><ref name=colin>{{cite book |last1=Groves |first1=C. |author-link1=Colin Groves |last2=Grubb |first2=P. |author-link2=Peter Grubb (zoologist) |year=2011 |title=Ungulate Taxonomy |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-1-4214-0093-8 |page=32}}</ref> The [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] philosopher [[Aristotle]] was the first European to [[species description|describe]] the camels: in his 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BCE ''[[History of Animals]]'', he identified the one-humped Arabian camel and the two-humped Bactrian camel.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de&nbsp;Buffon |first1=C. |author-link=Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de&nbsp;Buffon |title=Natural History, General and Particular |volume=6 |year=1791 |publisher=Alexander Strahan |page=121 |location=London, UK |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/77169#page/135/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=W. |last2=Anthon |first2=C. |year=1870 |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities |edition=3rd |place=New York, NY |publisher=[[Harper (publisher)|Harper and Brothers Publishers]] |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028214694 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028214694/page/n215 204]}}</ref> The Bactrian camel was given its current binomial name ''Camelus bactrianus'' by Swedish zoologist [[Carl Linnaeus]] in his 1758 publication ''[[10th edition of Systema Naturae|Systema Naturae]]''.<ref name=SN>{{cite book |last=Linnaeus |first=C. |author-link=Carl Linnaeus |title=Systema Naturæ per Regna Tria Naturae |volume=1 |year=1758 |publisher= [[Laurentius salvius]] |location=Stockholm, Sweden |page=65 |edition=[[10th edition of Systema Naturae|10th]] |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/726965}}</ref>

Though sharing a closer common ancestor with it than with the dromedary, the domestic Bactrian camel does not descend from the wild Bactrian camel, with the two species having diverged hundreds of thousands of years ago, with their [[mitochondrial genomes]] estimated to have diverged around 1 million years ago. Genetic evidence suggests that both Bactrian camel species are closely related to the extinct giant camel species ''[[Camelus knoblochi]]'' which became extinct around 20,000 years ago, which is equidistant from both living Bactrian camel species.<ref name=Yuanetal2024></ref>

The Bactrian camel and the dromedary often interbreed to produce [[fertility|fertile]] offspring. Where the ranges of the two species overlap, such as in northern Punjab, Iran and Afghanistan, the [[phenotypic]] differences between them tend to decrease as a result of extensive crossbreeding between them. The fertility of their [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrid]] has given rise to speculation that the Bactrian camel and the dromedary should be merged into a single species with two varieties.<ref name="camel">{{cite book |last=Mukasa-Mugerwa |first=E. |year=1981 |title=The camel (''Camelus dromedarius''): A bibliographical review |location=Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |publisher=[[International Livestock Centre for Africa]] |pages=1–147 |url=http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAP013.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202032116/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAP013.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 February 2016}}</ref> However, a 1994 analysis of the [[mitochondria]]l [[cytochrome b]] gene revealed that the species display 10.3% divergence in their [[DNA sequencing|sequences]].<ref name="stanley">{{cite journal |first1=H.F. |last1=Stanley |last2=Kadwell |first2=M. |last3=Wheeler |first3=J.C. |year=1994 |title=Molecular evolution of the family Camelidae: A mitochondrial DNA study |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society&nbsp;B: Biological Sciences |volume=256 |issue=1345 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1098/rspb.1994.0041 |pmid=8008753 |bibcode=1994RSPSB.256....1S |s2cid=40857282}}</ref>