Kyptoceras amatorum, new genus and species from the Pliocene of Florida, the last protoceratid artiodactyl

Abstract

Kyptoceras amatorum n.g. et sp. is described from the Upper Bone Valley Formation, late Hemphillian (early Pliocene) of Polk County, Florida. In the male skull the forked rostral horn lacks a shaft and the frontal horns are nearly twice as long as those of any other Protoceratidae. Both the rostral and the frontal horns are tilted forward in distinctive fashion. This genus represents a new tribe, Kyptoceratini, which may have originated in subtropical savannas south of the range of the more familiar tribe Synthetoceratini.