| Oreodont
Taxonomy: Class Mammalia, Order Artiodactyla,Suborder Oreodonta,
Family Merycoidodontidae
Geological Time: Oligocene
Size: 200 mm x 95 mm total height is 140 mm
Fossil Site: Brule Formation, White River Badlands, South Dakota
Item: AA002
Price: $1095.00
Remarks: The US badlands are a rich source of mammalian fossils
dating from the late Eocene through
Miocene.
The Brule
Formation is exposed over a huge area including Nebraska, North
and South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado, and yields mammal fossils
if and when the layers are eroded. This diverse group of stocky
prehistoric
mammals grazed amid the grasslands, prairies or savannas of North
and Central America throughout much of the Cenozoic era.
Oreodonts disappeared some four million years
ago during the Pliocene. Today, fossil jaws and teeth of the Oreodonta
are
commonly found in the White River badlands in South Dakota, Nebraska,
and Wyoming. Oreodonts have a unique place in the evolution of
ruminant teeth and with peccary-like attributes.
Oreodonts are Artiodactyls, even toed ungulates, sometimes called
a cross between a pig and a sheep. Note that they have both large
canine front teeth, but also molars for chewing plants. They were
herding animals and grazers, eating mostly grasses. They averaged
three to four feet long. Note that this is an excellently preserved
and prepared skull with well preserved teeth and bone, and with
little or no restoration.
This specimen is unique in that it was found with mouth agape, forming
an ominous display. Note that it is also large for an Oreodont skull,
measuring some 8 inches in length. |
