Damaliscus niro is an extinct species of antelope that lived in Africa throughout the Pleistocene, as recently as 63,000 years ago.[1]
Arthur Tindell Hopwood described Damaliscus niro as Hippotragus niro in 1936 from a horn core collected by L.S.B. Leakey from a site at the Olduvai Gorge. In 1965, Gentry transferred the species from Hippotragus to Damaliscus.[2]
Damaliscus niro is mostly known from the Early to Middle Pleistocene of eastern and southern Africa.[3][4] In 2008, some Late Pleistocene remains of D. niro were found near Plovers Lake in South Africa, dated to between 89,000 and 63,000 BP.[5]
Damaliscus niro has backwards curving horn cores with well-spaced, strong transverse ridges on their front surface.[6] Isotopic evidence from Mid Pleistocene specimens suggest a diet dominated by C4 grasses.[7]
Damaliscus niro is an extinct species of antelope that lived in Africa throughout the Pleistocene, as recently as 63,000 years ago.
