Protoceras

Protoceras (†Protoceras (Marsh, 1891))

 

Order: Artiodactyla

Family: Protoceratidae

Temporal range: during the Oligocene to the Early Miocene (33.3—16.0 Ma, North America)

Dimensions: length - 1 m, height - 50 сm, weight ~30 kg

 

 

Protoceras the one of the earliest and most primitive protoceratids and was 1 metre long and resembled a deer in terms of body shape. Like some other protoceratids it had three pairs of blunt horns on its skull. In life these were probably covered with skin, much like the ossicones of a giraffe. Protoceras was sexually dimorphic: females only had one pair of horns, on the back of the skull, which was shorter than the same pair in males. Males probably used these horns for display, impressing females, or intimidating rivals. Due to the orientation of the horns the males probably displayed them sideways instead of frontally.

Protoceras lived from the Oligocene to the Early Miocene 33.3—16.0 Ma, existing for approximately 17 million years.