Capromeryx minor (Taylor, 1911)

Davis, Matt, Nye, Benjamin D., Sinatra, Gale M., Swartout, William, Sjӧberg, Molly, Porter, Molly, Nelson, David, Kennedy, Alana A. U., Herrick, Imogen, Weeks, Danaan DeNeve & Lindsey, Emily, 2022, Designing scientifically-grounded paleoart for augmented reality at La Brea Tar Pits, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 9) 25 (1), pp. 1-37 : 12-13

Capromeryx minor

( Figure 6 )

Appearance. The extinct dwarf pronghorn is understudied. This is especially regrettable given that the dwarf pronghorn doesn’t seem to fit the pattern of the end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction. Based on its reconstructed small size (~ 10.5 kg), mixed diet, and open forest habitat, the dwarf pronghorn should have easily survived the many larger grazing ungulates that went extinct in North America (Bravo-Cuevas et al., 2013; Pérez-Crespo et al., 2016; Davis, 2017). In a reversal of the pattern seen with most other Rancholabrean mammalian families (ursids, felids, canids, bovids), the dwarf pronghorn became extinct while the larger species of the group ( Antilocapra americana ) survived. More detailed analysis of this seemingly anomalous extinction could add more context to the ongoing debate surrounding the causes of the end-Pleistocene extinction pulse ( Davis, 2017).

We followed a reconstruction of a dwarf pronghorn originally sculpted by William Otto for the old Hancock Hall at NHMLAC sometime between 1923 and 1946 (Scott, 1985). It is unclear whether Capromeryx exhibited sexual dimorphism in horncore structure like A. americana does but all C. minor specimens with prominent horncores are typically regarded as males (White and Morgan, 2011). Thus, this reconstruction with horns probably represents a male. The coloring of the sculpture, a simplified version of the countershading of A. americana , is speculative but reasonable given it is a common pattern for many small ungulates; dappling would also make sense (White and Morgan, 2011). Although this reconstruction is very old, it is still on display at La Brea Tar Pits and the small amount of research on dwarf pronghorns since its creation has not generated any findings rendering it obsolete. As mentioned above, unless strong scientific evidence compelled us otherwise, we aimed to reuse older reconstructions to provide a consistent visual language for species at La Brea Tar Pits.

Behavior. Little is known about the dwarf pronghorn’s sociality or behavior but given its small size, rareness in the fossil record, and likely habitat, it has been inferred to have a lifestyle similar to extant small forest dwelling ungulates like duiker or brocket deer (White and Morgan, 2011; Davis, 2017). We portrayed the dwarf pronghorn as solitary and furtive, freezing at the sound of predators.

PALAEO- ELECTRONICA.ORG

Ancient Bison

Figures

FIGURE 6. Low poly reconstruction of the extinct dwarf pronghorn (Capromeryx minor). To view this model in 3D, please see the online version of this article.