Paraoioceros Meladze, 1985

Kostopoulos, Dimitris S., 2014, Taxonomic re-assessment and phylogenetic relationships of Miocene homonymously spiral-horned antelopes, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59 (1), pp. 9-29 : 17

Genus Paraoioceros Meladze, 1985

Type species: Paraoioceros wegneri ( Andrée, 1926) ; see below.

Emended diagnosis.—Plesiomorphic traits: Small to medium−sized bovids with gradually tapering horncores; horncores oval or rounded in basal cross section ( Fig. 1 ); postcornual fossae present. Apomorphic traits: horncores moderately thick, long, homonymously twisted, distally divergent, closely spiraled, and bearing multiple deep, longitudinal furrows with keel−like edges; premolars short compared to the molars; goat folds present on the lower molars.

Remarks.— Kostopoulos and Koufos (1996) suggested Oioceros wegneri Andrée, 1926 and Samotragus occidentalis Masini and Thomas, 1989 to be related. At the same time, Gentry and Heizmann (1996) were the first to comment on the possible synonymy between Paraoioceros improvisus Meladze, 1985 and O. wegneri . Later, the original referral of P. wegneri to Oioceros was further challenged by Roussiakis (2003).

Figures

Fig. 1. Box−plots of the horncore basal compression index (i.e., TD*100/ ADP) for several species and genera of Oiocerina, showing the medial (horizontal line inside the boxes), the 25–75% quartiles (gray boxes) and the minimum and maximum range of values (short horizontal lines). NKT−1, Nikiti−1; RZ1, Ravin des Zouaves 1.