Remains of a 100,000-year-old giant camel new to science have been found in the Syrian desert, scientists say.

"Can you imagine? The camel's shoulders stood three metres high and it was around four metres tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant," he says.

That makes the ancient camel twice as tall as today's dromedaries, or one-humped camels.

"Nobody knew that such a species had existed," he says.

Humans apparently killed the camel while it was drinking from a spring, says Tensorer.

Humans have been present in what is now modern Syria for 1.5 million years. The area played a key role in the migration of the first human beings towards Asia and Europe, he says.

Kowm, the site where the remains were discovered along with flint and stone weapons, is a 20 kilometre-wide gap between two mountain ranges that had a number of springs.

Basel University researchers say it is considered a "reference for early prehistory in the Near East".