#brontotheres

Throwback Thursday! This archival image, snapped sometime before 1921, depicts a Museum preparator sculpting a clay model of an extinct brontothere. Many brontotheres, or “thunder beasts,” had large bony “horns” on their snouts. Strong neck musculature suggests that these animals may have used their headgear to batter rivals or defend themselves from predators. These horns may have also been used to attract mates: However, such paleontological puzzles are hard to test and solve with any certainty when no close evolutionary relatives are still living. Brontotheres became extinct about 30 million years ago during the Eocene.

Some pages from one of my sketchbooks.

Brontothere Family, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Paleontology Research Center

Brontotheres? Seems great...until you realise this is supposed to be the K-Pg extinction.