Blastomeryx
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Blastomeryx Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
Reconstruction | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Moschidae |
Subfamily: | †Blastomerycinae |
Genus: | †Blastomeryx Cope, 1877 |
Species | |
| |
Synonyms | |
|
Blastomeryx is an extinct genus of musk deer endemic to North America. It lived during the Miocene epoch 20.4—10.3 mya, existing for approximately 10 million years.[1] There may be only one species, Blastomeryx gemmifer.[2]
Blastomeryx was 75 centimetres (30 in) long and looked like a modern chevrotain. Its canines were elongated into tusks which it probably used to uproot plants and fend off predators. While Blastomeryx (as well as modern musk deer) lacked antlers, a Middle Miocene species had bony knobs on its skull, which have been interpreted as incipient horns.[3]
References
- ^ Blastomeryx at fossilworks
- ^ Prothero, 2007 (p. 221-226)[full citation needed]
- ^ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 273. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
Categories:
- Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments
- All articles with incomplete citations
- Articles with incomplete citations from October 2018
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Articles with 'species' microformats
- Prehistoric musk deer
- Miocene Artiodactyla
- Piacenzian extinctions
- Miocene mammals of North America
- White River Fauna
- Fossil taxa described in 1877
- Prehistoric Artiodactyla genera
- Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope