Giraffe's Three Horned Cousin Discovered?

Well-preserved fossils of the extinct three-horn ruminant Xenokeryx amidale were found in central Spain.

21:57 07 December 2015

Scientists have discovered well-preserved fossils suggesting that the extinct three-horn ruminant Xenokeryx amidalae found in central Spain could be related to modern giraffes instead of deer. They say the their new study will help us better understand the evolution of cranial features such as horns, as well as the evolution of land ecosystem.

 

Ruminants, which include cattle, sheep, goat, deer, giraffes, antelopes, and camels, among others have represented a big proportion of the world's largest herbivore for the last 40 million years.

 

Dr Israel Sánchez from the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid explained: "Giraffes nowadays are characteristic of Africa. But in the Miocene there were giraffes both in Eurasia and in Africa. And the origin of giraffes is probably in Asia, in Pakistan.”

 

"Establishing the place of palaeomerycids in the ruminant tree gives us insights into the evolutionary history of the large clade of pecoran ruminants that include giraffes (Giraffa and Okapia) as its only extant survivors, and shows us the amazing diversity of an ancient lineage that inhabited both Eurasia and Africa."