''Sivatherium'' ("Shiva's beast", from

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

and ''therium'', Latinized form of Ancient Greek θηρίον -'' thēríon'') is an extinct genus of giraffid that ranged throughout

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

. The species ''Sivatherium giganteum'' is, by weight, one of the largest giraffids known, and also one of the largest

ruminant Ruminants are herbivorous grazing or browsing artiodactyls belonging to the suborder Ruminantia that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microb ...

s of all time. ''Sivatherium'' originated during the Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

(around 7 million years ago) in Africa and survived through to the late Early Pleistocene ( Calabrian) until around 1 million years ago.

Description

''Sivatherium'' resembled the modern okapi, but was far larger, and more heavily built, being about tall at the shoulder, in total height with a weight up to . A newer estimate has come up with an estimated body mass of about or . This would make ''Sivatherium'' one of the largest known ruminants, rivalling the modern giraffe and the largest bovines. This weight estimate is thought to be an underestimate, as it does not take into account the large horns possessed by males of the species. ''Sivatherium'' had a wide,

antler Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) Family (biology), family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally fo ...

-like pair of ossicones on its head, and a second pair of ossicones above its eyes. Its shoulders were very powerful to support the

neck The neck is the part of the body in many vertebrates that connects the head to the torso. It supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that transmit sensory and motor information between the brain and the rest of the body. Addition ...

muscle Muscle is a soft tissue, one of the four basic types of animal tissue. There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Muscle tissue gives skeletal muscles the ability to muscle contra ...

s required to lift the heavy

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

. ''Sivatherium'' was initially misidentified as an archaic link between modern ruminants and the now obsolete,

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

" pachyderms" (elephants, rhinoceroses, horses and tapirs). The confusion arose in part due to its graviportal (robust) morphology, which was unlike anything else studied at that time.

Diet

A dental wear analysis of ''S. hendeyi'' from the Early Pliocene of South Africa found that the teeth were brachyodont, but had a higher hypsodonty than a giraffe, and that it was best classified as a mixed feeder, being able to both graze and browse. Analysis of dental microwear and mesowear paired with δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O measurements of ''S. maurusium'' from Ahl al Oughlam in western Morocco show it predominantly fed on C₃ vegetation.

Relationship with humans

Remains of ''Sivatherium'' from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, dating to around 1.35 million years ago have been found associated with stone tools and bearing cut marks, indicating butchery by

archaic humans ''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively calle ...

, likely ''

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' ( ) is an extinction, extinct species of Homo, archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and human gait, gait, to early expansions of h ...

''. Historically, it has been suggested that figurines from Sumeria and ancient rock paintings in the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

and Central West India represent ''Sivatherium''. However, these claims are not substantiated by fossil evidence (which suggest that the genus was extinct long before the emergence of modern humans), and the depictions likely represent other animals.

References

*Barry Cox, Colin Harrison, R.J.G. Savage, and Brian Gardiner. (1999): ''The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures: A Visual Who's Who of Prehistoric Life''. Simon & Schuster. *David Norman. (2001): ''The Big Book Of Dinosaurs''. pg. 228, Walcome books. *''After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past)'' by Donald R. Prothero *''The Evolution of Artiodactyls'' by Donald R. Prothero and Scott E. Foss *''Vertebrate Palaeontology'' by Michael J. Benton and John Sibbick *''Evolving Eden: An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large Mammal Fauna'' by Alan Turner and Mauricio Anton *''Classification of Mammals'' by Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell \ *''The Book of Life: An Illustrated History of the Evolution of Life on Earth, Second Edition'' by Stephen Jay Gould * ''World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures: The Ultimate Visual Reference To 1000 Dinosaurs And Prehistoric Creatures Of Land, Air And Sea ... And Cretaceous Eras (World Encyclopedia)'' by Dougal Dixon *''Eyewitness: Prehistoric Life'' by William Lindsay *''Walker's Mammals of the World (2-Volume Set) (Walker's Mammals of the World)'' by Ronald M. Nowak *''Horns, Tusks, and Flippers: The Evolution of Hoofed Mammals'' by Donald R. Prothero and Robert M. Schoch {{Taxonbar, from=Q899506 Miocene mammals of Africa Pliocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene mammals of Africa Miocene mammals of Asia Pliocene mammals of Asia Pleistocene mammals of Asia Prehistoric giraffes Pliocene Artiodactyla Pleistocene Artiodactyla Prehistoric Artiodactyla genera Miocene first appearances Pleistocene extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1836

Description

Diet

Relationship with humans

See also

References

Further reading