| Protitanops | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type specimen of Protitanops curryi (LACM/CIT 1854) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | †Brontotheriidae |
| Tribe: | †Brontotheriini |
| Subtribe: | †Brontotheriina |
| Infratribe: | †Brontotheriita |
| Genus: | †Protitanops Stock, 1936 |
| Species: | †P. curryi
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Protitanops curryi Stock, 1936
| |
Protitanops is an extinct genus of horned brontothere that lived in North America during the Middle to Late Eocene, in the Duchesnean and Chadronian land mammal ages.
Distribution
The genus is best known from the Western United States, especially in Death Valley, California, where the best specimens of the type species P. curryi have been found.2 The species is also known from fossils found in Texas and Chihuahua in the region in and around Big Bend National Park.3
Description
Protitanops bore a strong resemblance to brontotheres in the genus Megacerops due to its knob-shaped horns. However, the position of the horns differed in Protitanops, in that they pointed straight up, rather than more forwards like in Megacerops.2
References
References
- Hodnett, John-Paul M.; Welsh, Edward T.; Santucci, Vincent L.; Tweet, Justin S. (2022). "A Middle Eocene brontothere (Mammalia; Perissodactyla; Brontotheriidae) from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming". FOSSIL RECORD 8. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. p. 211.
- Mihlbachler, Matthew C. "Species taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of the Brontotheriidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (311). American Museum of Natural History. hdl:2246/5913. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
- Mihlbachler, Matthew C.; Prothero, Donald Ross (2021). "Eocene (Duchesnean and earliest Chadronian) brontotheres (Brontotheriidae), Protitanops curryi and cf. Parvicornus occidentalis, from west Texas and Mexico". Palaeontologia Electronica. doi:10.26879/944. Retrieved 6 October 2025 – via Palaeontologia Electronica.