Prolibytherium magnieri

Prolibytherium (†Prolibytherium (Arambourg, 1961))

 

Order: Artiodactyla

Family: †Prolibytheriidae

Time period: the Early Miocene of North Africa and Pakistan (16.9 to 15.97 million years ago).

Dimensions: length - 1,8 m, weight -  100 - 180 kg

Typical representative: Prolibytherium magnieri

 

Prolibytherium  is an extinct artiodactyl ungulate native to Early Miocene North Africa and Pakistan, from around 16.9 to 15.97 million years ago.

The 1.80 metres  long creature would have superficially resembled an okapi or a deer. Unlike these, however, Prolibytherium displayed dramatic sexual dimorphism, in that the male had a set of large, leaf-shaped ossicones with a width of 35 centimetres, while the female had a set of slender, horn-like ossicones.

The taxonomic status of Prolibytherium remains in flux. At one time, it was described as a relative of Sivatherium (as a precursor to "Libytherium maurusium" (S. maurusium)). Later, it would be regarded as a palaeomerycid, or either as a climacoceratid, or as a basal member of Giraffoidea. With the discovery and study of a female skull in 2010, Prolibytherium is tentatively regarded as a climacoceratid.

 

palaeomerycid, Giraffoidea, Climacoceratid, Prolibytherium, Miocene, Africa, Pakistan, even-toed ungulate