''Menelikia'' is a genus of extinct

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 ...

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s, belonging to the

bovids The Bovidae comprise the family (biology), biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes Bos, cattle, bison, Bubalina, buffalo, antelopes (including Caprinae, goat-antelopes), Ovis, sheep and Capra (genus), goats. A member o ...

. It lived from the middle

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

(circa 4.1 - 1.4 million years ago) and its fossils are found in East Africa.

Description

This animal was likely similar to the contemporary ''

Kobus ellipsiprymnus The waterbuck (''Kobus ellipsiprymnus'') is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus '' Kobus'' of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies ar ...

'' or '' Kobus megaceros''. It was a medium-to-large sized antelope.

Classification

The genus ''Menelikia'' was coined by Arambourg in 1941 on the basis of fossil finds in the east Africa Plio-Pleistocene. The type specimen for ''Menelikia lyrocera'' lived between 3.4 and 1.4 million years ago. The species ''M. leakeyi'', described in 1991, is slightly older (4.1 - 2.5 million years old). ''Menelikia'' is a part of the group

Reduncini The bovid subfamily Reduncinae or tribe Reduncini is composed of nine species of antelope, all of which dwell in marshes, floodplains, or other well-watered areas, including the waterbucks and reedbucks. These antelopes first appear in the fossi ...

, which are African bovids with numerous species of antelopes that have semiaquatic lifestyles. They are currently confined to Africa but in the past have had wider ranges (for example ''Sivacobus'').

Paleobiology

In general ''Menelikia'' possessed characteristics of a mixed-feeding browser.

Bibliography

* J. M. Harris. 1991. Family Bovidae. Koobi Fora Research Project: The Fossil Ungulates: Geology, Fossil Artiodactyls, and Palaeoenvironments 3:139-320 * Spencer, L. M. 1997. Dietary adaptations of Plio-Pleistocene Bovidae: implications for hominid habitat use. Journal of Human Evolution 32:201–228. * M. G. Leakey and J. M. Harris. 2003. Lothagam: the dawn of humanity in eastern Africa. Lothagam: the dawn of humanity in eastern Africa 678 {{Taxonbar, from=Q30893981 Prehistoric bovids Prehistoric Artiodactyla genera