| QUOTE |
The bovids include such diverse forms as gazelles, African antelope, buffalo, mountain goats, and domesticated species such as cattle, sheep, and goats.
Bovid horns are made up of a permanent bony core covered with a layer of keratin, which is never shed.
The fossil history of the bovids begins in the early Miocene. The bovids that currently inhabit North America probably reached the continent by dispersal from northern Asia during the Pleistocene, when they crossed the Bering Strait on a land bridge. The climate was most likely chilly, which may be why North American bovids are cold-adapted. |
In relation to the family Antilocapridae:
| QUOTE |
Their most distinctive feature is their horns, which are like those of bovids in that they consist of a keratinous sheath over a bony core, but differ because the keratinous sheath is shed periodically
and the orbits are large and placed far back on the skull, behind the level of the last molar. (A feature that is also true for some of the more slender bovid forms). |
Now
www.Angellis.net has an extensive database for different prehistoric species. And every animal that is labeled as a "prongbuck" in the galleries (family Antilocapridae) lives in North America. All other similar forms are bovids. While doing searches for other sites that explain the differences between African Antelope and Pronghorns I came across quite a few that explained that Antelope have never been found in America. Now in contrasting the differences between Bovidae and Antilocapridae the only really useful charachteristic is the shedding of the keratin sheath on the horns. Can paleontologists tell by looking at fossils if the sheath was shed or not? If Bovids (the family that Antelope belong to) traveled to north America then why can't some of these prehistoric "pronghorns" be antelope or even that Antilocaprids themselves are really Bovids?
Hello Lagosuchus. I'm sorry, I really don't have a good response for this, as I'm not too knowledgeable about mammals, sadly. But by any chance, did you come from Dan's JP3 Page? I think I know you.