Three Horned, Giraffe-Like Creature Lived 16 Million Years Ago, Found In Spain

A strange extinct three-horned giraffe-like animal was found in Spain. The animals was identified as a palaeomerycid ruminant, known as Xenokeryx amidalae, an extinct giraffe relative from 16 million years ago, according to a study at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC.

Palaeomerycids were a group of unusual three-horned Eurasian Miocene ruminants and were common in Spain and China, (based on fossil findings), where they lived between 11 to 16 million years ago during the Miocene period.

Ruminants are mammals that acquire their nutrients from plants by fermenting it in their stomachs through microbial actions. It is often referred to as the cud or chewing of the cud, where the animal regurgitates it food and chews it again. The cud breaks down the plant matter and allows digestion to take place, this process is called rumination.

In their study, the researchers categorized the animal as palaeomerycid based on its evolutionary and ruminant features.

The well-preserved Xenokeryx amidalae fossil had frontal and supra-occipital 't-shaped' cranial attachments, along with dental and postcranial remains, according to the researchers. They found that Eurasian palaeomerycids were not in any way related to North American dromomerycids. They were probably the distant relatives to deer. However, the palaeomerycids clade is related to and contains Giraffa and Triceromeryx.  

"Establishing the place of palaeomerycids in the ruminant tree gives us insights into the evolutionary history of the large clade of pecoran ruminants that include giraffes as its only extant survivors and shows us the amazing diversity of an ancient lineage that inhabited both Eurasia and Africa," Israel Sanchez, co-author of the study, said in a news release.   

The findings of this study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Related Articles 

North Pacific Whale: 30-Million-Year-Old Fossil Identified 

80-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Has Original Blood Vessels

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).