Giraffokeryx

Giraffokeryx is an extinct genus of medium-sized giraffids known from the Miocene of the Sivalik Hills of India, Pakistan and Nepal, though it is also known from Türkiye. It is distinguished from other giraffids by the four ossicones on its head; one pair in front of the eyes on the anterior aspect of the frontal bone and the other behind the eyes in the frontoparietal region overhanging the temporal fossae. It has a brachydont dentition like in other giraffids and its legs and feet are of medium length. Giraffokeryx is considered monotypic by most authors, in the form of G. punjabiensis, but other species have been assigned to the genus:G. chinjensis was assigned to the genus, but later included within the extinct species Giraffa priscilla. The distribution of this latter species and G. punjabiensis indicates that the Himalayas still did not act as a barrier for faunal dispersal during the middle Miocene. G. anatoliensis, a partial skull with a postorbital horn and isolated teeth from Turkey, had shorter and less inclined horns than G. punjabiensis.

Giraffokeryx

Susan B. Hochgraf · CC0 · 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
Sits inside
GiraffokerycinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Giraffidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Giraffidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 4.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Miocene — about 17 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 17 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.7–9.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.1–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.1–7.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.5–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15.98 Mya11.63 Mya20.9 Mya4.8 Mya

17 occurrences of Giraffokeryx on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

17 occurrences

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

6 formations

Chinji — 32.68°N, 72.37°EChinji — 32.93°N, 71.66°EChinji — 33.53°N, 73.55°EChinji — 32.79°N, 72.93°EManchar — 26.33°N, 67.83°ELothidok — 3.22°N, 35.83°ENagri — 32.77°N, 72.50°EUpper Koru Series — 0.23°S, 35.34°EChinji — 32.82°N, 75.37°E

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The named rock units Giraffokeryx has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Giraffokeryx and its relatives

Miocene

Where Giraffokeryx and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

246 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Giraffokeryx, 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

12 references

Each of the 17 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. 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 content1

Picture of Giraffokeryx

Credit
Susan B. Hochgraf
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Giraffokeryx was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

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 itGiraffokerycinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pilgrim 1910