A Pliocene fauna from Western Nebraska / by W.D. Matthew and Harold J. Cook.

  • Matthew, William Diller, 1871-1930.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A Pliocene fauna from Western Nebraska / by W.D. Matthew and Harold J. Cook. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1909.] Bovid.®. Neotragocerus gen. nov. This genus includes antelopes with short straight horns and braehvdont teeth, a combination of characters not found in any living groups, but characteristic of the Tragoeerine group of the late Mio- cene and Pliocene reported hitherto only from Europe, Asia and Africa. The horns are shorter and straighter than in Tragocerus or in any of the mod- em goats (? Nemorhcedus excepted). The upper molars resemble those of Tragocerus and various other extinct genera which have been recorded by different European authors. Neotragocerus improvisus sp. nov. Type a complete horn-core, No. 14141. Para types, two upper jaws dis- playing the molar teeth, Nos. 14136 and 1413. The discovery of an unmistakeable bovid horn was a most unexpected feature of this fauna. The horn is about 4$ inches long, 1£ inches in diameter at the base, round-oval in cross section and perfectly straight. Its surface is that of the horn cores of Bovidae, easily distin- guished from the horn core of the Prong- horn Antelope by the coarser and less compact structure of the surface, and quite unlike any Cervid antlers in surface. It approaches Oreamnus in form and sur- face about as nearly as any modern genus with which we have made comparison, but lacks the curvature of that genus. In the entire collection there are no Fig. 26. Neotragocerus improvisus, horn-core, type specimen, natural size