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Do camels have nucleated Red cells? 

Quote from the above source: "The hypothesis is that  they  throw  back  to  the  ancestral  reptiles  and other lower vertebrates seemed superficially obvious, and  perhaps  led  to  the  error  often  published  that camel erythrocytes are nucleated.  In fact, they are anucleate"

Like all mammals, camel red blood cells are without a nucleus. This is a very useful adaptation to increase oxygen carrying potential.

However, their red blood cells are a different shape (i.e. oval instead of doughnut shaped - see below). The importance of this is that they can be aligned in the direction of the blood flow, so the camel is at a much lower risk of complications from thickening blood when dehydrated.



Additionally, camel red blood cells are able to expand to 240 % of their initial size (only 150 % in other animals). As a result, they are able to hydrate their blood much more when given opportunity to drink water.

 Credits: Quora

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