Preview
Identifier
sa8_003_01
Description
This black and white photograph features an exhibit about the Oreodonts, a family of extinct mammals. Seven skulls and one full skeleton are on display. The skulls are mounted to the wall and the skeleton is mounted on metal poles to a wooden base. Signs identifying the fossils are also part of the exhibit. Merycoidodontoidea is the current name for this animal.
Physical Description
black and white photograph
Keywords
Even-toed ungulates, Fossils, Specimens, Prehistoric life, Museum Exhibits, Paleontology
Rights
© University Archives, Fort Hays State University
Publisher
Digitized by Forsyth Digital Collections
Collection
Recommended Citation
Sternberg, George Fryer 1883-1969, "003_01: Oreodonts" (2021). George Sternberg Album #8 - 1940. 4.
https://scholars.fhsu.edu/sternberg_album8/4
Language
eng
Transcription
Oreodonts An extinct family of North American Ruminants. THE OREODONTS The Oreodonts are a family of extinct mammals that lived in North America from the late Eocene to the Pliocene epoch. They were the most numerous of all indigenous hoofed-animals of this continent. In the Oligocene bad lands of the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Colorado and in the Miocene sands of Nebraska and other adjacent states, their fossil remains are abundant. In the succeeding Pliocene epoch they died out entirely. No traces of the Oreodonts have been found on any other continent. The Oreodonts were similar in size and in proportions to the wild pigs or peccaries of America. Some of the later and larger members of the family reached the size of the wild boars of western Europe. The Oreodonts differed from the pig-like mammals in various ways, particularly in having a crescent pattern on the crowns of the molar teeth as in the sheep and the deer, instead of the low cones which occur on the crowns of the molars of pigs and peccaries. On account of their tooth-structure, the Oreodonts are designated as "ruminants"; their food habits can only be conjectured. The Oreodonts died out entirely before the Ice Age in North America. Leptauchenia decora - Upper Oligocene South Dakota. Merychyus arenarum - Lower Miocene Wyoming. Protoreodon parvus - Upper Eocene Utah. Merycoidodn culbertsonii - Middle Oligocene South Dakota. Merycoides cursor - Lower Miocene Wyoming. Restoration of an Oligocene Oreodont, Merycoidodon. Metordon profectus - Lower Pliocene Nebraska. Eporeodon major - Upper Oligocene Locality Not Recorded. Promerycochoerus hatcheri - Lower Miocene Nebraska. Skeleton of Large Oreodont Promerycochoerus carrickeri - Harrison Beds, Lower Miocene Niobrara River, Nebraska.
Keywords
Even-toed ungulates, Fossils, Specimens, Prehistoric life, Museum Exhibits, Paleontology
Comments
For questions contact ScholarsRepository@fhsu.edu