| Lagomeryx Temporal range: Miocene | |
|---|---|
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| Specimen of Lagomeryx on display at the Geological Museum of China. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | † Palaeomerycidae |
| Genus: | † Lagomeryx Roger, 1904 |
Lagomeryx is a genus of prehistoric ungulate that lived in Eurasia from the lower to middle Miocene. Fossil remains were found in Europe and Asia.
This animal looked not very different from present chevrotains, but possessed two small horns on the skull. Its size was very small (Lagomeryx means "rabbit ruminant" in reference to the size). The smallest species, Lagomeryx pumilio, was just as big as a hare. Lagomeryx and its close relatives (such as Ligeromeryx and Stephanocemas ) had many primitive features resembling those of moschoid ancestors, such as the presence of two elongated canines in adult males. The cranial appendages were formed by a relatively short pedicle. In smaller species (such as L. pumilio ) these horns were very tiny, and did not exceed the height of 1.5 centimeters.
The type species is L. ruetimeyeri, which could reach the size of a current muntjac, and was found mainly in Germany and France. Other European species are the tiny L. pumilio, and L. parvulus, which was intermediate in size between the two previous ones. Asian species were L. complicidens and L. colberti from China, the latter more specialized and endowed with rather elongated horns. L. manai, found in Thailand, was large and probably related to L. complicidens [4]
A deer or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae. It is divided into subfamilies Cervinae and Capreolinae. Male deer of almost all species, as well as female reindeer, grow and shed new antlers each year. These antlers are bony extensions of the skull and are often used for combat between males.
The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, yaks, bison, buffalo, antelopes, sheep and goats. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, the family Bovidae consists of 11 major subfamilies and thirteen major tribes. The family evolved 20 million years ago, in the early Miocene.
Ruminants are herbivorous grazing or browsing artiodactyls belonging to the suborder Ruminantia that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. The process, which takes place in the front part of the digestive system and therefore is called foregut fermentation, typically requires the fermented ingesta to be regurgitated and chewed again. The process of rechewing the cud to further break down plant matter and stimulate digestion is called rumination. The word "ruminant" comes from the Latin ruminare, which means "to chew over again".
Moschidae is a family of pecoran even-toed ungulates, containing the musk deer (Moschus) and its extinct relatives. They are characterized by long 'saber teeth' instead of horns, antlers or ossicones, modest size and a lack of facial glands. While various Oligocene and Miocene pecorans were previously assigned to this family, recent studies find that most should be assigned to their own clades, although further research would need to confirm these traits. As a result, Micromeryx, Hispanomeryx, and Moschus are the only undisputed moschid members, making them known from at least 18 Ma. The group was abundant across Eurasia and North America during the Miocene, but afterwards declined to only the extant genus Moschus by the early Pleistocene.
Brockets or brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus Mazama. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian muntjacs, but only distantly related. About 10 species of brocket deer are described.
Pecora is an infraorder of even-toed hoofed mammals with ruminant digestion. Most members of Pecora have cranial appendages projecting from their frontal bones; only two extant genera lack them, Hydropotes and Moschus. The name "Pecora" comes from the Latin word pecus, which means "cattle". Although most pecorans have cranial appendages, only some of these are properly called "horns", and many scientists agree that these appendages did not arise from a common ancestor, but instead evolved independently on at least two occasions. Likewise, while Pecora as a group is supported by both molecular and morphological studies, morphological support for interrelationships between pecoran families is disputed.
Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of carnivorans of the suborder Feliformia, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, that lived in North America, Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene epoch and existed for about 7.9 million years. Thought to be an independent lineage from the Nimravidae and Machairodontinae, which had all attained elongated canines, recent research argues that it may be a subfamily of the Nimravidae, extending its biochronological range into the Miocene, although this issue is not yet fully resolved.
The Capreolinae, Odocoileinae, or the New World deer are a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they are known as the telemetacarpal deer, due to their bone structure being different from the plesiometacarpal deer subfamily Cervinae. The telemetacarpal deer maintain their distal lateral metacarpals, while the plesiometacarpal deer maintain only their proximal lateral metacarpals. The Capreolinae are believed to have originated in the Middle Miocene, between 7.7 and 11.5 million years ago, in Central Asia.
Hoplitomeryx is a genus of extinct deer-like ruminants which lived on the former Gargano Island during the Miocene and the Early Pliocene, now a peninsula on the east coast of South Italy. Hoplitomeryx, also known as "prongdeer", had five horns and sabre-like upper canines similar to a modern musk deer.
The Palaeomerycidae is an extinct family of Neogene ruminants belonging to the infraorder Pecora. Palaeomerycids lived in Europe and Asia exclusively during the Miocene, coevolving with cervids, bovids, moschids, and tragulids there as part of a dramatic radiation of ruminants by the early Miocene.
Rucervus is a genus of deer from India, Nepal, Indochina, and the Chinese island of Hainan. The only extant representatives, the barasingha or swamp deer and Eld's deer, are threatened by habitat loss and hunting; another species, Schomburgk’s deer, went extinct in 1938. Deer species found within the genus Rucervus are characterized by a specific antler structure, where the basal ramification is often supplemented with an additional small prong, and the middle tine is never present. The crown tines are inserted on the posterior side of the beam and may be bifurcated or fused into a small palmation.
Duerotherium is an extinct genus of Paleogene artiodactyls known only from the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Eocene, which contains one species D. sudrei. It, like other members of the Anoplotheriidae, was endemic to western Europe. The anoplotheriine was described from a left fragment of a maxilla from the Mazaterón Formation of the Duero Basin in 2009. Its dentition is mostly typical of the Anoplotheriinae but differs by an elongated plus triangular 3rd upper premolar and very specific traits of the molars. It is thought to have been part of an endemic faunal assemblage that evolved within the Iberian Peninsula by the Middle Eocene, where climates were subtropical.
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This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2014, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
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This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2017, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
Hispanomeryx is an extinct genus of artiodactyl from the middle to late Miocene epoch, living from 13 to 8 million years ago. Over the years, they have been variously classified as being related to bovids or giraffes, or even belonging to their own unique family, but they are now widely regarded as moschids, relatives of the living musk deer.
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