DAMASCUS - The bones of a giant camel dating back 100,000 years were recently unearthed in the Syrian desert, a government newspaper has reported.

The bones were discovered by a joint Syrian-Swiss archaeological team at the site of al-Hemel in the Palmyra region about 250 kilometers northwest of Damascus, the state-run Tishrin daily reported Saturday.

The discovery was the first of its kind and revealed that the Syrian desert "is the first origin of the camel," Bassam Jammous, director general of the Antiquities and Museum Department in Syria, told the newspaper.

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He said the camel is double the size of the modern-day camel and "poses a revolution in the world of archaeological discoveries."

Officials with the Swiss archaeology team could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday.