Climacoceratidae is a family of superficially deer-like

artiodactyl Artiodactyls are placental mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla ( , ). Typically, they are ungulates which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes (the third and fourth, often in the form of a hoof). The other t ...

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Euungulata ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with Hoof, hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined ...

s which lived in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

epoch in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. They are close to the ancestry of

giraffes The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant re ...

, with some genera, such as '' Prolibytherium'', originally classified as giraffes. The climacoceratids, namely members of what is now the type genus '' Climacoceras'', were originally placed within the family

Palaeomerycidae The Palaeomerycidae is an extinct family of Neogene ruminants belonging to the infraorder Pecora. Palaeomerycids lived in Europe and Asia exclusively during the Miocene, coevolving with cervids, bovids, moschids, and tragulids there as part o ...

, and then within

Giraffidae The Giraffidae are a family (biology), family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a recent common ancestor with deer and bovids. This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently comprises only two extant ge ...

. In 1978, W. R. Hamilton erected a new family, placing it close to Giraffidae within the superfamily Giraffoidea. They differ from giraffes in that their

antler Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) Family (biology), family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally fo ...

-like

ossicone Ossicones are columnar or conical skin-covered bone structures on the heads of giraffes, male okapi, and some of their extinct relatives. Ossicones are distinguished from the superficially similar structures of Horn (anatomy), horns and antlers ...

s are derived from different bones.

References

* MacInnes, D. G. 1936, "A new genus of fossil deer from the Miocene of Africa", Journal of the Linnean Society, Zoology 39: 521–530. * Hamilton, W. R., 1978, "Cervidae and Palaeomerycidae", 495–508, in Maglio, V. J. & Cooke, H. B. S., (eds.) "Evolution of African mammals", Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England, 1978, xiv-641 Giraffoidea Miocene first appearances Miocene extinctions Prehistoric mammal families {{paleo-eventoedungulate-stub