Knowra Protoceratidae Protoceratidae Protoceratidae is an extinct family of North American even-toed ungulates that lived from the Eocene to the Pliocene. Its members are known for paired bony horns, often on the skull or snout.
Artiodactyla : Artiodactyla is the mammalian order of even-toed ungulates, including pigs, deer, camels, and cattle. Protoceratids belong to this order, whose members bear weight mainly on the third and fourth toes.
Protoceras : Protoceras is a small, horned protoceratid genus from the Oligocene of North America. Its skull displays the family’s characteristic paired horn structures in a compact form.
Eocene : The Eocene is a geological epoch lasting from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago. The earliest protoceratids appeared during this epoch in North America.
Leptotragulus : Leptotragulus is an early protoceratid genus known from Eocene North American fossils. It represents protoceratid ancestry near the family’s early fossil record.
Mammal : Mammals are vertebrates characterized by hair and milk production by mammary glands. Protoceratids were mammals within the larger evolutionary group of vertebrates.
Synthetoceras : Synthetoceras is a Miocene protoceratid genus known for elaborate cranial appendages. Its unusual branching snout horn shows how far protoceratid horn forms could diversify.
Oligocene : The Oligocene is a geological epoch lasting from about 33.9 to 23 million years ago. Protoceratids diversified during the Oligocene, including forms such as Protoceras.
Paratoceras : Paratoceras is an extinct genus of protoceratid from the Miocene of North America. Its fossils document one of the family’s later branches and horn arrangements.
Cranial appendage : A cranial appendage is a bony or keratin-covered structure projecting from an animal’s skull. The family’s paired horns were bony cranial appendages, rather than true horns like those of cattle.
Dromomerycidae : Dromomerycidae is an extinct family of North American ruminants with distinctive skull appendages. Like protoceratids, dromomerycids evolved elaborate head structures, but belonged to a different family.
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