Honanotherium

Honanotherium is a genus of extinct giraffid from the late Miocene of Henan Province, China, and East Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran.[2][1] It was closely related to Bohlinia and was once thought to be ancestral to the modern giraffe (genus Giraffa). The living animal would have resembled a modern giraffe, but was somewhat shorter, with more massive ossicones.

Honanotherium
Temporal range: Late Miocene
skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Giraffidae
Genus: †Honanotherium
Bohlin, 1927
Species
  • H. schlosseri Bohlin, 1927
  • H. bernori Solounias & Danowitz, 2016[1]

The first part of the generic name, honano refers to the Henan (Chinese: 河南; pinyin: Húnán) province of China, where the first specimens were recovered. the second part, therium, comes from the Greek, θηρίον which means "beast."

Paleobiology
reconstruction

Like the modern-day giraffe, Honanotherium may have grazed on low-lying trees in the savannah environment, although its shorter neck shows that it probably fed on different plants than the extant giraffe.

References
  1. Nikos Solounias and Melinda Danowitz (2016). "The Giraffidae of Maragheh and the identification of a new species of Honanotherium". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. in press. doi:10.1007/s12549-016-0230-7.
  2. Bohlin, B. 1927. Die Familie Giraffidae. Pal. Sinica, Ser. C, IV, Fasc. 1, various pages.


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