Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of

 

Date of this Version

5-1942

Citation

Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 23, No. 2 (May, 1942), p. 223.

Abstract

A Bos-like animal, Parabos dodsoni, was recently described by Barbour and Schultz (1941, "A New Fossil Bovid from Nebraska", Bull. Univ. Nebr. State Museum, Vol. II, No. 7, pp. 63-66, Figs. 24-27, December) as a new genus and species from the Pleistocene of Nebraska. Attention has been called to the writers by Dr. E. H. Colbert of the American Museum of Natural History that the name Parabos is preoccupied. Parabos was introduced as a generic name by C. Arambourg and J. Piveteau (1929, "Note preliminaire sur un Ruminant du Pliocene inferieur du Roussillon," C. R. Bull. Soc. Geol. de France, 4th Ser., XXIX, pp. 144-146). Unfortunately the reference was missed by the present writers as well as by the editors of the Zoological Record (1929-1939).

The writers propose the name Platycerabos to replace Parabos for the new American bovid. The corrected designation would thus be Platycerabos dodsoni (Barbour and Schultz).

The occurrence of a Bos-like form from the Pleistocene of North America is unique. It has long been thought that the migration of true bovines from Asia to North America during the Pleistocene was limited to Bison, but the discovery of Platycerabos dodsoni has altered this belief.

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