''Menelikia'' is a genus of extinct

Artiodactyl The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing poster ...

mammals, belonging to the

bovids The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, and caprines. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, the ...

. It lived from the middle

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene 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 ...

(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 ...

'' 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, 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

Menelikia_lyrocera_skull,_horn_core_and_mandible

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 even-toed ungulate genera