Yesterday was World Giraffe Day. Giraffes are members of a once-large superfamily of artiodactyls called the Giraffoidea, that now includes only three extant genera: Giraffa, Okapaia (okapis), and Antilocapra (pronghorns). While giraffes and okapis are only found in the Old World, antilocaprids are native to North America.Antilocaprids have an extensive fossil record, as as recently as the Pleistocene they were much more diverse. Several species are known from the Pleistocene of Southern California, and there are a few specimens in the collections at the Western Science Center.
Above is a partial lower right third molar, seen in lingual view. This tooth is consistent with Antilocapra itself, but could also represent the similar-sized Tetrameryx, which is also known from the southwest. This tooth is our only record of an antilocaprid from the Late Pleistocene deposits in the Harveston neighborhood of Temecula, in southwestern Riverside County.We've made a 3D model of this tooth available for download at Sketchfab at https://skfb.ly.6zQBw.
Valley of the Mastodons
The blog of the Western Science Center