Biology:Morenelaphus
Morenelaphus | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Cervidae |
Subfamily: | Capreolinae |
Genus: | †Morenelaphus Carette 1922 |
Species: | †M. brachyceros
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Binomial name | |
†Morenelaphus brachyceros Gervais & Ameghino 1880
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Morenelaphus is an extinct genus of capreoline deer that lived in South America during the Pleistocene, ranging from the Pampas to southern Bolivia and Northeast Brazil. There is only a single recognised species, Morenelaphus brachyceros. It was a large deer, with some specimens estimated to exceed 200 kilograms in body mass.[1] The antlers were over 70 cm in length, and are superficially similar those of deer belonging to the subfamily Cervinae, like red deer.[2] Fossils of the genus have been recovered from the Agua Blanca, Fortín Tres Pozos and Luján Formations of Argentina , the Ñuapua Formation of Bolivia, Santa Vitória do Palmar in southern Brazil , Paraguay and the Sopas Formation of Uruguay.[3]
Dental microwear analysis suggests Morenelaphus had a mixed-feeder diet, including grass and perhaps with the occasional ingestion of gritstone. It went extinct during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, around 12,000 years ago, possibly as a result of climate change and nutritional stress.[4]
References
- ↑ , Wikidata Q104936917
- ↑ Croitor, Roman (2022-11-06). "Paleobiogeography of Crown Deer" (in en). Earth 3 (4): 1138–1160. doi:10.3390/earth3040066. ISSN 2673-4834. Bibcode: 2022Earth...3.1138C.
- ↑ Morenelaphus at Fossilworks.org
- ↑ , Wikidata Q56522729
Wikidata ☰ Q3862930 entry