Protitanops

Protitanops
Protitanops clarnensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	† Brontotheriidae
Tribe:	† Brontotheriini
Subtribe:	† Brontotheriina
Infratribe:	† Brontotheriita
Genus:	† Protitanops Stock, 1936
Species:	†P. curryi
Binomial name
†Protitanops curryi Stock, 1936

Life reconstruction of Protitanops curryi

Protitanops is an extinct genus of brontotheriid odd-toed ungulate that lived during the Eocene in North America.

Distribution

The genus is best known from the Western United States, especially in Death Valley, California, where the best specimens of the type species P. curryi have been found. ^[1] The species is also known from fossils found in Texas and Chihuahua in the region in and around Big Bend National Park. ^[2]

Description

Protitanops bore a strong resemblance to brontotheres in the genus Megacerops due to its knob-shaped horns. However, the position of the horns differed in Protitanops, in that they pointed straight up, rather than more forwards like in Megacerops. ^[1]

References

1. Mihlbachler, Matthew C. "Species taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of the Brontotheriidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (311). American Museum of Natural History. hdl:2246/5913 . Retrieved 4 September 2013.
2. Mihlbachler, Matthew C.; Prothero, Donald Ross (2021). "Eocene (Duchesnean and earliest Chadronian) brontotheres (Brontotheriidae), Protitanops curryi and cf. Parvicornus occidentalis, from west Texas and Mexico". Palaeontologia Electronica . doi:10.26879/944 . Retrieved 6 October 2025– via Palaeontologia Electronica.