Sivatherium
Sivatherium ( painting by Heinrich Harder, 1916)
- Africa
- Asia
- Europe
The cattle Giraffes ( Sivatheriinae ) were a subfamily of fossil, giraffe -like ungulates, which had its heyday in the upper Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene in.
The name is derived from the sedimentary deposits at the foot of the Siwaliks mountain range in Pakistan from where in 1832 the first fossil remains of Indratheriums were discovered (named after the Hindu deity Indra ) by Hugh Falconer and Proby Thomas Cautley. Their habitat were the temperate regions of Africa, Europe ( especially in the Mediterranean and in Greece) and Asia.
At this subfamily included, among others, the following genera:
- Birgerbohlinia
- Griquatherium
- Helladotherium
- Indratherium
- Libytherium
- Orangiatherium
- Bramatherium
- Hydaspitherium
- Sivatherium
- Vishnutherium
The cattle giraffe first appeared in the upper Miocene in Eurasia about the same time the Giraffinen to which today's giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis ) is one. Most famous is the Sivatherium from India ( Sivatherium giganteum). It bore no resemblance to today's giraffes, but rather the morphology of a stocky antelope or a buffalo. It had short legs and a short neck, but reached a weight of 400 kg and a height of three meters. The massive skull was about 90 inches long. Of the four giant fellumkleideten trunnions were the rear shovel-shaped and the muzzle was - similar to a moose - quite broad. It probably fed on grass. The genera Lybitherium, Orangiotherium and Griquatherium are often expected to Sivatherium.
Sivatherium maurusium was the African Sivatherium. The fossil remains were found in Morocco ( Ahl al Oughlam ), in Djibouti and in the Olduvai Gorge.
Another type was Birgerbohlinia schaubei, which is also known as " European bovine giraffe ". She was native to the Mediterranean, weighed about 220 kg and reached a height of two meters and had two big trunnions. She died from a million years ago. It was named after the Swedish paleontologist Birger Bohlin, who conducted the most comprehensive classification of giraffe -like in the 1920s. Helladotherium was one of the early forms and is sometimes mistaken for a female of Hydaspitherium.
Most species lived two million years ago at the junction of the Pliocene to Pleistocene. The last representative died out during the Pleistocene. Occasionally, it is speculated that some may have survived until about 8,000 years ago. These assumptions are based on a Sumerian bronze figure and cave paintings from the Sahara, which show creatures that are vaguely reminiscent of Sivatherien.