| Harlan's muskox Woodland muskox Temporal range: middle to late Pleistocene |
|
|---|---|
| Bootherium bombifrons | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Caprinae |
| Genus: | †Bootherium Leidy, 1852 |
| Species: | †B. bombifrons |
| Binomial name | |
| †Bootherium bombifrons (Harlan, 1825) |
|
Harlan's muskox, or the woodland muskox[1] (Bootherium bombifrons) is an extinct bovid from the middle to late Pleistocene of North America.[2]
Harlan's muskox was one of the most widely distributed musk oxen species in North America during the Pleistocene era. Fossils have been documented from Alaska to California and Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and New Jersey. The species became extinct approximately 11,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.[1]
Harlan's muskox's closest relative is the extant muskox (Ovibos mochatus). However, unlike the tundra muskox, Harlan's muskox was physically adapted to a range of less frigid climates and appears to have been the only ox to have evolved in and remain restricted to the North American continent.[1] Harlan's muskox was significantly taller and leaner than muskoxen found today in Arctic regions. Other differences were a thicker skull and considerably longer snout. The horns of Harlan's muskox were situated high on the skull, with a downward curve and were fused along the midline of the skull, unlike tundra muskoxen whose horns are separated by a medial groove. An almost complete, mummified specimen was found in 1940.[3]
Three other species of musk oxen co-inhabited North America during the Pleistocene era. Besides the surviving tundra muskox, the extinct shrub-ox (Euceratherium collinum) and Soergel's ox (Soergelia mayfieldi) were also present.