Antidorcas recki explained

Antidorcas recki is an extinct species of gazelle, related to the extant springbok, from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of southern and eastern Africa.

Taxonomy

Antidorcas recki was named in 1932 by Schwarz, and assigned to Adenota.[1] It was subsequently reassigned to its own genus, Phenacotragus, also by Schwarz. In 1965, Louis Leakey referred two cranial fragments from Olduvai Gorge to Phenacotragus.[2] Alan William Gentry later wrote about gazelle material recovered from Olduvai, assigning several skull fragments to Gazella wellsi. He noted the similarities between G. wellsi and P. recki, and suggested they be sunk into the genus Antidorcas, but hesitated to synonymise them.[3] However, personal communications with Elisabeth Vrba suggest that he intended to at a later date.[4] Gentry later did so, forming the combination Antidorcas recki.[5]

Description

Similar to the modern springbok, Antidorcas recki was sexually dimorphic, with males having flattened horn cores that bent backwards sharply, and females having slender, straight cores with a round cross-section. It may have been more sexually dimorphic than its living relative.

Notes and References

  1. Schwarz . E . 1932 . Neue diluviale Antilopen aus Ostafrika . Zentralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie B . 1–4.
  2. Leakey . Louis Seymour Bazett . 1965 . Olduvai Gorge 1951-1961, Vol.1: A Preliminary Report on the Geology and Fauna . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge . 109.
  3. Gentry . Alan William . Fossil Antilopini of East Africa. . British Museum of Natural History Bulletin (Geology Series) . 12 . 43–106.
  4. Vrba . Elisabeth . Elisabeth Vrba . 1973 . Two species of Antidorcas Sundevall at Swartkrans (Mammalia, Bovidae). . Annals of the Transvaal Museum . 28 . 287–352.
  5. Gentry . Alan William . Gentry . A . 1978 . Fossil Bovidae (Mammalia) of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, Part I. . British Museum of Natural History Bulletin (Geology Series) . 29 . 290–446.