Damaliscus niro Temporal range:
Pleistocene
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Bovidae |
Subfamily: | Alcelaphinae |
Genus: | Damaliscus |
Species: | †D. niro
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Binomial name | |
†Damaliscus niro Hopwood, 1936
[1]
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Synonyms | |
Hippotragus niro |
Damaliscus niro is an extinct species of antelope that lived in Africa throughout the Pleistocene, as recently as 63,000 years ago. [1]
Arthur Tindell Hopwood described Damaliscus niro as Hippotragus niro in 1936 from a horn core collected by L.S.B. Leakey from a site at the Olduvai Gorge. In 1965, Gentry transferred the species from Hippotragus to Damaliscus. [2]
Damaliscus niro is mostly known from the Early to Middle Pleistocene of eastern and southern Africa. [3] [4] In 2008, some Late Pleistocene remains of D. niro were found near Plovers Lake in South Africa, dated to between 89,000 and 63,000 BP. [5]
Damaliscus niro has backwards curving horn cores with well-spaced, strong transverse ridges on their front surface. [6] Isotopic evidence from Mid Pleistocene specimens suggest a diet dominated by C4 grasses. [7]