Why do camels have nucleated red blood cells?

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.

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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 .

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