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Ooooh fun question! I’d need to dig into the literature to have a good opinion, but my first question is, what kind of environment do we find it in? Obviously it’ll be somewhere that sedimentary rock was deposited, otherwise we wouldn’t have a fossil at all, so not directly on steep, craggy terrain, but I would expect it to be nearby if that were its primary habitat.
Where you find the fossils is not necessarily a perfect indicator of where the animal lived. I'm not saying it lived on high peaks, more like rocky lowland cliffs and ravines. Not the perfect place for fossilization. But if it wandered into swamp land for a drink once in a while, that would be where you'd find the fossils.
I think you've not explained why it would be adapted to rocky terrain more than any other artiodactyl. Soft tissues are also a massive question, so just saying vaguely that it had better ankles for steep terrain means almost nothing.
Think of Thoatherium as a high performance pogo stick rather than a flexible brush dodger. While duikers and muntjacs have bendy legs to weave through thickets, Thoatherium’s limbs were ultra-rigid struts designed to handle a beating. Even though the bones look thin, they were locked into a straight line, perfect for high speed, vertical "hammering" on stone, while a duiker’s flexible ankle would just snap or roll. It wasn't built to sneak through the woods; it was built to "stiletto" its way across hard ledges without its joints wobbling under the pressure.
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Ooooh fun question! I’d need to dig into the literature to have a good opinion, but my first question is, what kind of environment do we find it in? Obviously it’ll be somewhere that sedimentary rock was deposited, otherwise we wouldn’t have a fossil at all, so not directly on steep, craggy terrain, but I would expect it to be nearby if that were its primary habitat.
Where you find the fossils is not necessarily a perfect indicator of where the animal lived. I'm not saying it lived on high peaks, more like rocky lowland cliffs and ravines. Not the perfect place for fossilization. But if it wandered into swamp land for a drink once in a while, that would be where you'd find the fossils.
Of course, but I would expect that swamp to be within a few miles of its primary habitat, as opposed to hundreds of miles from it
Thin limbs for that kind of environment, looks more similar to duikers and muntjac in anatomy, than to mountain goats and klipspringers.
Their dentition also suggests that they fed on soft leaves rather than tough grass or shrubs.
That could suggest feeding on shrubs growing in crevices.
Shrubs growing on craggy terrain tend to have rougher leaves.
Even in lowland crags and ravines with warmer climate?
I think you've not explained why it would be adapted to rocky terrain more than any other artiodactyl. Soft tissues are also a massive question, so just saying vaguely that it had better ankles for steep terrain means almost nothing.
Sorry where’s the analysis here?
Think of Thoatherium as a high performance pogo stick rather than a flexible brush dodger. While duikers and muntjacs have bendy legs to weave through thickets, Thoatherium’s limbs were ultra-rigid struts designed to handle a beating. Even though the bones look thin, they were locked into a straight line, perfect for high speed, vertical "hammering" on stone, while a duiker’s flexible ankle would just snap or roll. It wasn't built to sneak through the woods; it was built to "stiletto" its way across hard ledges without its joints wobbling under the pressure.