horned gophers
Ceratogaulus is an extinct genus of rodents, a member of the extinct fossorial (burrowing) rodent family Mylagaulidae. Ceratogaulus is one of two rodent genera with horns (along with fellow mylagaulid Mylagaulus) and is the smallest known horned mammal. Ceratogaulus lived in North America from the late Miocene to the early Pliocene epochs, 16.3 to 5.3 million years ago. Ceratogaulus (and to a lesser extent Mylagaulus) have sometimes been nicknamed "horned gophers", though they are only distantly related to true gophers.
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Description
- Possible roles of the horns
- Digging
- Mating displays or combat
- Defense
- References
- External links
Ceratogaulus is an extinct genus of rodents, a member of the extinct fossorial (burrowing) rodent family Mylagaulidae. Ceratogaulus is one of two rodent genera with horns (along with fellow mylagaulid Mylagaulus) and is the smallest known horned mammal. Ceratogaulus lived in North America from the late Miocene to the early Pliocene epochs, 16.3 to 5.3 million years ago. Ceratogaulus (and to a lesser extent Mylagaulus) have sometimes been nicknamed "horned gophers", though they are only distantly related to true gophers.
==Description== thumb|left|Reconstruction of a pair of C. hatcheri. Ceratogaulus had two horns; these were large (in comparison to body size), paired, and originated from the nasal bones. Myagaulids are the smallest known horned mammals and the only known rodents ever to have had horns (aside from the related genus Mylagaulus, which has one horned species, M. cornusaulax ). They are also one of only two known horned fossorial mammals, the other being Peltephilus, an extinct genus of armadillo. They were native to what is now the Great Plains of North America, mostly Nebraska.