Dr. James E. Martin, curator of paleontology and research professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has recently completed excavation of a 7 million-year-old camel in South-Central Oregon.

The giant camel, Megatylopus, was 12- to 14-feet tall and functioned much like the giraffe.

The partial skeleton will soon be on its way to Lafayette, where it will be prepared and placed on display as part of the third installment of the Prehistoric Giants exhibit presented by UL and the Lafayette Science Museum.

“It took two months to excavate and encase the specimen in plaster for shipment,” Martin said. “We’ll have a unique fossil specimen.”

The university’s collection moved to the Lafayette Science Museum in 2013.

With the first in a three-part dinosaur exhibit, attendance doubled in 2014.

The museum includes more than 3,000 square feet of exhibit space for fossils, minerals, and rocks, and a 1,500-square-foot research space for students and faculty. It houses the University’s collection of fossils, rocks and minerals; features a laboratory to process specimens; and offers new learning opportunities for the public.