A history of land mammals in the western hemisphereScott, William Berryman
History
A history of land mammals in the western hemisphere
Scott, William Berryman
Mammals; Mammals, Fossil
Deer are the only members of the Pecora which inhabit South America,
where there are several genera of them, all much more nearly allied to
North American than to Old World forms. No record of the presence of the
family in the southern continent has been found in beds older than the
Pleistocene, but in view of the degree of specialization which they have
there undergone, it is probable that the immigration took place in the
Pliocene.
SECTION CAVICORNIA. HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS
In the animals of this second and far larger section of the Pecora there
are bony outgrowths of the skull, from the frontal bones, outgrowths
which are permanent and non-deciduous; these are the _horn-cores_, which
are tapering and unbranched. The horn-core is, in turn, covered with a
sheath of horn, likewise unbranched and permanent, but growing from year
to year until the maximum size is attained, a process which is familiarly
illustrated in the growth of a calf. Among Recent Cavicornia there is
but one exception to the rule that the horny sheath is non-deciduous and
unbranched and that one is the Prong Buck (_Antilocapra americana_). In
the Cavicornia it is the very general rule that both sexes are horned,
though the females commonly have smaller horns and in several genera
of antelopes the does are hornless. There is almost as great variety
in the shape and size of the horn as of the antler; we find small,
medium-sized and enormously large horns, which may be straight, simply
curved, complexly curved, spiral, lyrate or twisted. The antelopes have
many types of horns, as have the sheep and goats, the oxen, buffaloes and
bisons; but only a few of them are exemplified in the western hemisphere,
which now, as in the preceding geological periods, is singularly poor in
representatives of the Pecora.
9, 10. _Antilopidæ and Antilocapridæ. Antelopes_
Two very different kinds of antelopes are found in North America at
the present time; one of them, the erroneously named Rocky Mountain
Goat (_Oreamnos montanus_), is evidently a late immigrant from the Old
World, and fossil remains of it have been found in the Pleistocene
cave-deposits of California. This animal is a member of the true
antelope family (Antilopidæ) and belongs to the chamois group of
mountain-antelopes; it has no near relatives among other American
mammals, living or extinct.
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