Harrington's mountain goat
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Harrington's mountain goat (''Oreamnos harringtoni'') was a species of
North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...
caprine that resided in the Southwest of the continent during the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
epoch. A relative of the modern
mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a hoofed mammal endemic to mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to alpine species, it is a sure-footed climber commonly seen on cliffs an ...
, which is the only existing species in the genus '' Oreamnos'', ''O. harringtoni'' became extinct around 11,000 B.C.


Fossil record

Harrington's mountain goat was first described in the 1930s by
paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
Chester Stock Chester Stock (28 January 1892 – 7 December 1950) was an American paleontologist who specialized in the Pleistocene mammalian fauna of the Rancho La Brea tar pits. He served as a professor of geology at the California Institute of Technology, ...
. Stock based his initial description on finds of skull fragments and
metapodial Metapodials are long bones of the hand (metacarpals) and feet (metatarsal The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes ...
bones from Smith Creek Cave in the Great Basin of
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
. In 1937 he authored a ''Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences'' article titled "A new mountain goat from the Quaternary of Smith Creek Cave, Nevada". Later finds in Mexico, Colorado, Nevada,
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
,
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
, and the Grand Canyon have included intact skulls, metapodials,
keratinous Keratin () is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as ''scleroproteins''. Alpha-keratin (α-keratin) is a type of keratin found in vertebrates. It is the key structural material making up scales, hair, nails, feathers, ho ...
horn sheaths, dung, hair, muscle and ligament.


Characteristics

Harrington's mountain goat was smaller than today's mountain goats, and had a longer, narrower face accompanied by thinner, smaller horns. Dung finds suggest that the goats frequented caves in the Grand Canyon during spring and possibly late winter and early summer. Their diet seems to have consisted of both grasses and browsing of conifers such as spruce, Douglas fir,
limber pine ''Pinus flexilis'', the limber pine, is a species of pine tree-the family Pinaceae that occurs in the mountains of the Western United States, Mexico, and Canada. It is also called Rocky Mountain white pine. A limber pine in Eagle Cap Wildernes ...
, and water birch.


Extinction

Harrington's mountain goat existed for at least 19,000 years prior to disappearing around 11,000 BC. The extinction is known to have coincided with the disappearance of at least 25 genera of land mammals, such as the
Shasta ground sloth ''Nothrotheriops'' is a genus of Pleistocene ground sloth found in North America, from what is now central Mexico to the southern United States. This genus of bear-sized xenarthran was related to the much larger, and far more famous '' Megatheriu ...
(''Nothrotheriops shastensis''), and the arrival of Native American hunters of the
Clovis culture The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone and bone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna, particularly two mammoths, at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in 1936 a ...
in the region.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16982785 Prehistoric caprids Pleistocene even-toed ungulates Pleistocene mammals of North America Fossil taxa described in 1936