Capromeryx minor ✝

Capromeryx minor, sometimes known as the dwarf pronghorn, is a very small, extinct species of pronghorn-like antilocaprid ungulate discovered in the La Brea Tar Pits of California and elsewhere. It has been found at least as far east as the coast of Texas. It stood about 60 centimetres tall at the shoulders and weighed about 10 kilograms (22 lb). It is unclear whether females had horns as well as males. Each horn consists of a pair of short, straight points that sprout from a single base on either side of the head, with the two prongs parallel rather than diverging as in Tetrameryx and Stockoceros. A number of different species have been described which are likely all the same: Capromeryx furcifer, Capromeryx mexicana and Capromeryx minimus. Capromeryx furcifer would have priority as the proper name for the Late Irvingtonian through Rancholabrean species in which the anterior prong is less than 50% the height of the posterior prong. Its fossils have also been found at least as far east at as the Texas coast, as well as in Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Sonora, Baja California, and near Mexico City. Specimens of this species (and its synonyms) date to the Late Irvingtonian and Rancholabrean periods. Two earlier species are known: Capromeryx tautonensis from Washington State and from Central Mexico in the Early Blancan, and Capromeryx arizonensis from the Late Blancan in Arizona, New Mexico and Florida. These two earlier species were larger and heavier than the Pleistocene species. It is thought by some biologists that it lived in forests and underbrush, where its small size would have helped it to hide. It is unlikely that it lived in open prairies, since it would not have been fast enough to outrun the predators of that time.