Palaeomeryx

Palaeomeryx is a genus of early ruminants. Their species existed in the Miocene in Eurasiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palaeomeryx&oldid=1125475126. I'm having a hard time finding all the species of Palaeomeryxes. One is P. tricornis, but it seems that this might not be the most popular species, especially as its sometimes moved to Sinomeryx. It's also hard finding fossils and depictions thereof, cause despite having cool horns like many ancient hoofed animals, it just isn't that popular. There seems to also be P. Cricetodon and P. kaudi.https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vRpHAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&ots=tSCRNREYxW&sig=5bltnd6Pqwg8xzqkSbnN4nz-YGM#v=onepage&q=palaeomeryx&f=false
There is confusion over where to place this group of animals. Some authors consider them to be giraffoid while others think they're more closely related to deer.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283044484_Palaeomeryx_Mammalia_Artiodactyla_and_the_giraffes_data_from_the_ear_region Their ear-bones seem to me to be its own unique thing but somewhat resemble deers' more so than the giraffes. But I am not even totally sure which species the original article is describing. Tricornis has been labelled as a deer in some studieshttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/293512775_The_fossil_records_of_deer_in_China. Additionally there seems to be confusion over to how its horns were shaped, with one description being:The occipital appendage of the Chinese ‘Palaeomeryx’ tricornis was originally described as a ‘bony horn much dilated at its end’, and reconstructed as a non-forked structure. However more recent discoveries have demonstrated that the occipital appendage of ‘P.’ tricornis was in fact long and bifurcatedhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668073/.While another:P4. Clade B contains ‘Sinomeryx’ tricornis + Ampelomeryx ginsburgi, and is characterized by flattish, non-pneumatized ossicones with an anteriorly positioned extension ‘wing’, presence of frontal eyebrow-like projections at the ossicone base, nuchal crest extended into the shaft of the occipital appendage, and a simple distal end of the post-metacristidhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668073/#pone.0143034.ref016. I am not totally sure what they even look like outside of a fossil on Wikipedia not marked with a species and a couple artist depictions of a four or three-horned saber-toothed okapi-deerhttps://www.deviantart.com/eurwentala/art/Ancient-Ruminants-584376985https://www.deviantart.com/artbyjrc/art/Bizarre-headgear-2-Palaeomerycids-834607663https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AYM9YuTiwkk9uhXyK_EDfP83KPwIzCbhNIb_I_QgQregdqC51NGiG1M/.
P. kaupi was found in what is now the Mediterranean during the Miocene.https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=96589&is_real_user=1 While I'm sure that P. tricornis can be found in central-northern Asia and is limited there, I am not sure what other species live where.
This is the namesake of the Palaeomeryx fold, a kind of flattened molar that was common in prehistoric ruminants.
== References ==
Category:Fossils
Category:Prehistoric deer
Category:Giraffoids