Oxydactylus Longipes
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''Oxydactylus'' is an extinct genus of
camelid Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, ...
endemic to
North America 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 Car ...
. It lived from the Late
Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
to the
Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...
(28.4–13.7 mya), existing for approximately .''Oxydactylus'' at fosilworks
/ref> The name is from the Ancient
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
οξύς (oxys, "sharp")and δάκτυλος (daktylos, "finger"). They had very long legs and necks, and were probably adapted to eating high vegetation, much like modern
giraffes The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, ''Giraffa camelopardalis ...
. Unlike modern camelids, they had hooves, rather than tough sole-pads, and splayed toes.


References

Prehistoric camelids Oligocene even-toed ungulates Miocene even-toed ungulates Serravallian genus extinctions Miocene mammals of North America Oligocene mammals of North America Prehistoric even-toed ungulate genera Chattian genus first appearances Aquitanian genera Burdigalian genera Langhian genera Fossil taxa described in 1904 {{paleo-eventoedungulate-stub