Bramatherium (Brahma’s beast) is an extinct genus of giraffids that ranged from India to Turkey in Asia. It is closely related to the larger Sivatherium.
| Bramatherium | |
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| Bramatherium perimense skull | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Giraffidae |
| Genus: | †Bramatherium Falconer, 1845 |
| Species | |
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Etymology
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The first part of the generic name, Brahma (Sanskrit masculine brahman-, nominative brahmā ब्रह्मा), is in reference to the Hindu god of creation. The second part, "therium", comes from the Greek word θηρίον (transliterated therion), meaning 'beast'.
Description
editBramatherium was built very similarly to Sivatherium. Alive, it would have resembled a heavily built okapi and had a crown-like set of four, radiating ossicones. Fossils, and examination of teeth in particular, suggested the living animals dwelled woodlands and wetlands.[2]
See also
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References
edit- ^ Geraads, Denis, and Erksin Güleç. "A Bramatherium skull (Giraffidae, Mammalia) from the late Miocene of Kavakdere (Central Turkey). Biogeographic and phylogenetic implications." Mineral Res. Expl. Bul 121 (1999): 51–56.
- ^ Khan, M. A., Akhtar, M., & Irum, A. (2014). Bramatherium (Artiodactyla, Ruminantia, Giraffidae) from the middle Siwaliks of Hasnot, Pakistan: biostratigraphy and palaeoecology. Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences, 23(3), 308-320. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2021.1898976
- Falconer, H. (1845) “Description of some fossil remains of Deinotherium, Giraffe, and other mammalia, from Perim Island, Gulf of Cambay, Western Coast of India”, J. Geol. Soc., 1, 356–372.
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