Dorcatherium

Dorcatherium is an extinct genus of tragulid ruminant which existed in Europe, East Africa, and the Siwaliks during the Miocene and possibly Pliocene.^[1]

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  Dorcatherium sp. by Mauricio Anton
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  Dorcatherium minus jaw fragments, Natural History Museum, London
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  Dorcatherium crassum Left Hemi Mandible MHNT
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  Dorcatherium guntianum Left Hemi Mandible MHNT

Dorcatherium Temporal range: Miocene, Possibly Pliocene 23–5.3 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Dorcatherium naui skeleton, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Tragulidae
Genus:	†Dorcatherium Johann Jakob Kaup, 1833
Type species
†Dorcatherium naui Kaup & Scholl, 1834
Other species
†Dorcatherium guntianum von Meyer, 1846 †Dorcatherium majus Lydekker, 1876 †Dorcatherium jourdani Déperet, 1887 †Dorcatherium puyhauberti Arambourg & Piveteau, 1929 †Dorcatherium pigotti Whitworth, 1958 †Dorcatherium bulgaricum? Bakalov & Nikolov, 1962 †Dorcatherium nagrii Prasad, 1970 †Dorcatherium libiensis Hamilton, 1973 †Dorcatherium minimus West, 1980 †Dorcatherium orientale Qiu Zhanxiang & Gu Yumin, 1991 †Dorcatherium maliki Kostopoulos & Sen, 2016 †Dorcatherium dehmi Guzmán, Sandoval & Rössner, 2021

Palaeoecology

D. naui was partially frugivorous, the evidence for this being its dental enamel's ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹⁸O_CO3, and δ¹³C values.^[2] At the Middle Miocene site of Maboko in Kenya, D. pigotti displays relatively high δ¹³C values, probably indicative of feeding in less wooded environments than modern tragulids, while the δ¹³C values of D. chappuisi at the same site were even higher, suggesting a preference for even more open and arid habitats than D. pigotti.^[3]