''Damaliscus niro'' is an extinct species of

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...

that lived in Africa throughout the Pleistocene, as recently as 63,000 years ago.

Taxonomy

Arthur Tindell Hopwood described ''Damaliscus niro'' as ''Hippotragus niro'' in 1936 from a horn core collected by

L.S.B. Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

from a site at the Olduvai Gorge. In 1965, Gentry transferred the species from ''Hippotragus'' to ''Damaliscus''.

Distribution and age

''Damaliscus niro'' is mostly known from the Early to Middle Pleistocene of eastern and southern Africa. In 2008, some

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...

remains of ''D. niro'' were found near Plovers Lake in South Africa, dated to between 89,000 and 63,000 BP.

Description

''Damaliscus niro'' has backwards curving horn cores with well-spaced, strong transverse ridges on their front surface. Isotopic evidence from Mid Pleistocene specimens suggest a diet dominated by C4 grasses.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q41082729 Prehistoric bovids Pleistocene even-toed ungulates Pleistocene mammals of Africa Prehistoric mammals of Africa Pleistocene extinctions Prehistoric even-toed ungulates