Samotherium

Samotherium (Samotherium boissieri Forsyth-Major, 1889)

 

Order: Artiodactyla

Family: Giraffidae

Time period: during the Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa (13.82 - 2.58 mya)

Dimensions: length - 3-4 m, height - 1.9-2.3 m, weight - 300-650 kg

Typical representative: Samotherium boissieri

 

Samotherium (''the beast of Samos'') is an extinct genus of Giraffidae from the Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa. Samotherium had two ossicones on its head, and long legs. The ossicones usually pointed upward, and were curved backwards, with males having larger, more curved ossicones, though, in the Chinese species, S. sinense, the straight ossicones point laterally, not upwards. The genus is closely related to Shansitherium.

the beast of Samos, samotherium, herbivorous, Giraffidae, Pliocene, Miocene, sivatherine, even-toed ungulate, extinct giraffid