Protoceratidae
Sign in to saveProtoceratidae is an extinct family of herbivorous North American artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) that lived during the Eocene through Pliocene. While early members of the group were hornless, in later members males developed elaborate cranial ornamentation. They are variously allied with Ruminantia or Tylopoda.
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Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Classification
- Morphology
- Genera by epoch
- Eocene
- Oligocene
- Miocene
- Pliocene
- References
Protoceratidae is an extinct family of herbivorous North American artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) that lived during the Eocene through Pliocene. While early members of the group were hornless, in later members males developed elaborate cranial ornamentation. They are variously allied with Ruminantia or Tylopoda.
==Classification== Protoceratidae was erected by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1891, with the type genus Protoceras and assigned to the Artiodactyla. It was later assigned to Pecora, and more recently to Ruminantia or Tylopoda. However, recently a relationship to chevrotains in the infraorder Tragulina has been proposed.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Protoceratidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.