TOOTH MICROWEAR AND PREMAXILLARY SHAPE OF AN ARCHAIC ANTELOPE

Extant ungulates can be divided into three dietary categories: browsin g feeders, grazing feeders, and mixed feeders. Dietary adaptations can be differentiated in extinct ruminants based upon tooth microwear ana lysis as well as evaluation of premaxillary morphology. Tooth microwea r shows that the extinct bovid Kipsigicerus labidotus from the Miocene of Fort Ternan in Kenya (14 million years old) was most likely a graz ing feeder, with mixed-feeder tendencies, while morphologically the pr emaxilla most closely resembles that of a mixed feeder. Because the pa leoenvironment at Fort Ternan was likely to have been forested, as sho wn by paleosol isotopic studies, grazing in this particular ruminant e volved within a forested environment preceding the origin of savanna.