HOME | DD

Description
Here's one I'm proud of! I was prompted when first having stumbled upon a photo of a horn core of one of these. I read the name was Damaliscus niro. Damaliscus? Really? Damaliscus today consists of two species, the Blesbok/Bontebok and the Tssesebe/Topi/Tiang/Korrigum species cluster, and they all have fairly short, lyre-shaped horns. The horn core was long and gently curved, putting me in mind of a Sable Antelope. More searching and I got more! The best was a piece of the horn sheath that was found in Wonderboom Cave, South Africa. It was excellently preserved and showed the ridges that go along the front margin of the horn. The article had some cool info. At first, the South African horn specimens were thought to belong to an ibex! You may know what that is: a wild goat living in mountains, with enormous curving horns. In East Africa, at first these were thought to belong to a species of Hippotragus, the genus containing the sable and roan antelopes. Only with more investigation, they realized they were dealing with a long-faced antelope! From the fossils I think these horns could reach a length of over 70 cm along the curve. Damaliscus niro lived from the early to the mid-Pleistocene ... it was flourishing about 800 000 years ago.

Description
Here's one I'm proud of! I was prompted when first having stumbled upon a photo of a horn core of one of these. I read the name was Damaliscus niro. Damaliscus? Really? Damaliscus today consists of two species, the Blesbok/Bontebok and the Tssesebe/Topi/Tiang/Korrigum species cluster, and they all have fairly short, lyre-shaped horns. The horn core was long and gently curved, putting me in mind of a Sable Antelope. More searching and I got more! The best was a piece of the horn sheath that was found in Wonderboom Cave, South Africa. It was excellently preserved and showed the ridges that go along the front margin of the horn. The article had some cool info. At first, the South African horn specimens were thought to belong to an ibex! You may know what that is: a wild goat living in mountains, with enormous curving horns. In East Africa, at first these were thought to belong to a species of Hippotragus, the genus containing the sable and roan antelopes. Only with more investigation, they realized they were dealing with a long-faced antelope! From the fossils I think these horns could reach a length of over 70 cm along the curve. Damaliscus niro lived from the early to the mid-Pleistocene ... it was flourishing about 800 000 years ago.