Gazella atlantica
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Antilopinae
Tribe: Antilopini
Genus: Gazella
Species:
†G. atlantica
Binomial name
†Gazella atlantica

Gazella atlantica, the Atlantic gazelle, is an extinct species of gazelle that lived in Northwest Africa during the Late Pleistocene.

Taxonomy

The Atlantic gazelle was described in 1870 from late Quaternary cave deposits at Jebel Thaya in Algeria. Fossils are relatively common across Algeria and Morocco. The Atlantic gazelle is closely related to Gazella tingitana, another extinct gazelle from the Late Pleistocene of North Africa.

Description

The Atlantic gazelle was a small species of antelope, estimated at around 20 kg (44 lb).[2] It would have been roughly comparable in size to the Speke's gazelle, which is generally considered the smallest living gazelle.

Paleoecology

Fossils of the Atlantic gazelle have been found alongside those of wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) suggesting a habitat preference for open grasslands.[3]

In a published paper, anthropologist Richard G. Klein suggested that the Atlantic gazelle may have persisted into the Holocene as recently as 4,000 BP (along with Camelus thomasi and Megaceroides).[4] However, these claims cannot be substantiated, and the latest fossils of this species are dated to between 100 and 37 ka (100,000 - 37,000 years).[5][6]

References

  1. ^ "Gazella atlantica". Fossilworks.
  2. ^ Prins, Herbert H. T.; Gordon, Iain J. (2019). The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing II. Springer International Publishing. p. 192. ISBN 9783030258658.
  3. ^ Michel, P. (2009). "Large Upper Pleistocene fauna from El Harhoura 2 (Temara, Morocco): Preliminary data, paleoecological and paleoclimatic data". L'Anthropologie. 113: 283–312. doi:10.1016/j.anthro.2009.04.003.
  4. ^ Klein, Richard G. (1984). "Mammalian extinctions and Stone age people in Africa". Quaternary Extinctions: 553–573.
  5. ^ Faith, J. Tyler (2014). "Late Pleistocene and Holocene mammal extinctions on continental Africa". Earth-Science Reviews. 128: 105–121. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2013.10.009.
  6. ^ Turvey, Samuel T. (2009). Holocene Extinctions. OUP Oxford. p. 25. ISBN 9780191579981.
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