|
The extinct five-horned prongdeer ''Hoplitomeryx matthei'' with its sabrelike ('moschid' type) upper canines lived on the former Gargano Island during the Miocene and the Early Pliocene, now a peninsula on the east coast of South Italy. Its fossilized remains were retrieved in the late sixties and subsequent years from reworked reddish, massive or crudely stratified silty-sandy clays (terrae rossae), which partially fill the paleo-karstic fissures in the Mesozoic limestone substrate and that are on their turn overlain by Late-Pliocene-Early Pleistocene sediments of a subsequently marine, shallow water and terrigenous origin. In this way a buried paleokarst originated. The fauna from the paleokarst fillings is known as ''Mikrotia'' fauna after the endemic murid of the region (initially named "Microtia", with a c, but later corrected, because the genus ''Microtia'' was already occupied). Later, after the regression and continentalization of the area, a second karstic cycle started in the late Early Pleistocene, the neokarst, which removed part of the paleokarst fill. == Description == ''Hoplitomeryx'' was a deer-like ruminant 〔(Leinders 1984)〕 with a pair of pronged horns above each orbit and one central nasal horn. Hoplitomerycids are not the only horned deer; before the appearance of antlered deer, members of the deer family commonly had horns. Another left-over of this stage is ''Antilocapra'' of North America, the only survivor of a once successful group related to Bovidae. The diagnostic features of ''Hoplitomeryx'' are: one central nasal horn and a pair of pronged orbital horns, protruding canines, complete fusion of the navicocuboid with the metatarsal, distally closed metatarsal gully, a non-parallel-sided astragalus,〔(Van der Geer 1999)〕 and an elongated patella.〔(Van der Geer 2004)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hoplitomeryx」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|