Just as many a human family falls on hard times, so do animal families. Once proud assemblages slowly fade away, leaving little hint of the glory that once was theirs. Most naturalists will maintain that the Pronghorn, Antilocapra americana, the sole remaining member of a once numerous clan, still carries the flag high. Nonetheless, one can bemoan the loss, no matter how illustrious the survivor.
All the horned mammals of today are limited to two horns. But not our
pronghorns of yesteryear. The fossil record of the Chihuahuan Desert shows that
four-horned pronghorns were the cat's meow, so to speak, during the late ice ages.
And going back a bit further in time, there even was a six-horned pronghorn. Surely our
under-endowed Antilocapra americana, with its two, barely branched horns, must
have felt like the plain daughter in a family of beauties. Even the little fellows, not
all that much bigger than jackrabbits, sported four horns. But, like Cinderella, our
Pronghorn has had the last laugh—only it is still here, racing across the
grasslands of today.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.