Antilocapra americana
The pronghorn is a species of artiodactyl mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American antelope, prong buck, pronghorn antelope, and prairie antelope, because it closely resembles the antelopes of the Old World and fills a similar ecological niche due to parallel evolution. It is the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae.

www.naturespicsonline.com · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- pronghornPBDB
- Sits inside
- AntilocapraPBDB
- Diet
- browser, grazerPBDB, for Antilocapridae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Antilocapridae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
- Mass
- 3.5 kgWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 198 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 210 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.
21 occurrences of Antilocapra americana on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
21 occurrences- Pleistocene94%
- Holocene6%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
3 formations
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The named rock units Antilocapra americana has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Antilocapra americana and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Antilocapra americana and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
395 taxa- Equus14 sites
- Canis latrans13 sites
- Lepus11 sites
- Ovis canadensis8 sites
- Vulpes vulpes8 sites
- Aenocyon dirus7 sites
- Camelops7 sites
- Camelops hesternus7 sites
- Canis lupus7 sites
- Puma concolor7 sites
- Lemmiscus curtatus6 sites
- Lynx rufus6 sites
- Neotoma cinerea6 sites
- Odocoileus hemionus6 sites
- Peromyscus6 sites
- Sylvilagus audubonii6 sites
- Thomomys talpoides6 sites
- Erethizon dorsatum5 sites
- Hemiauchenia5 sites
- Lepus townsendii5 sites
- Mammuthus columbi5 sites
- Marmota flaviventris5 sites
- Ondatra zibethicus5 sites
- Taxidea taxus5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Antilocapra americana, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
18 references- Vertebrate fauna and hunting patterns3
- Natural Trap Cave2
- The Late Pleistocene vertebrate fauna1
- The American Falls local fauna: Late Pleistocene (Sangamonian) vertebrates from southeastern Idaho1
- Early Rancholabrean mammals from Salamander Cave, Black Hills, South Dakota1
- Reconstruction of mid Wisconsinan environments in southern New Mexico1
- Late Pleistocene vertebrates from Gunnison County, Colorado1
- A Late Pleistocene-Holocene fauna from Chihuahua, Mexico1
- Quaternary paleontology and paleocology of Crystal Ball Cave, Millard County, Utah: with emphasis on mammals and description of a new species of fossil skunk1
- Faunal correlation of Pleistocene deposits in Western Canada1
- Biostratigraphy and paleoecology of Pleistocene deposits (Riddell Member, Floral Formation, Late Rancholabrean), Saskatoon, Canada1
- Late Pleistocene vertebrates of the Silver Creek local fauna from north Central Utah1
Each of the 21 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 6 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Antilocapra americana
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- www.naturespicsonline.com
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Antilocapra pronghorn / Antilocapra americana · PSAL:ARCH:A#10
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Pronghorn”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itAntilocapra through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ord 1815)