#procranioceras

[chile-and-yi-official]

Chile is pushed to the limit.

For a larger image of the comic, go here.

[palaeornithology]

Procranioceras skinneri, a dromomerycid from the Miocene (16.3-13.6 Ma) of the US. Dromomerycids were a successful group of ruminant mammals closely related to deer, bovids and their allies - all members of this group sported turret-like bone protrusions on their heads used for intraspecific combat and display, including this three-horned P. skinneri. Dromomerycids’ teeth and leg proportions suggest they lived in boggy forests and ate soft aquatic plants. 

[alphynix]

Procranioceras skinneri, a palaeomerycid ruminant from the mid-Miocene of North America, living about 15 million years ago. Standing around 1m tall at the shoulder (~3′3″), its most striking feature was its odd headgear: two long straight 'horns’ over its eyes and a third protrusion at the back of the skull.

But despite its superficially deer-like appearance, these structures weren’t antlers. They were in fact ossicones, like those of its closest modern relatives the giraffids, and were probably covered in skin and fur rather than horn.