Aletomeryx is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of Artiodactyla, of the family Palaeomerycidae

Palaeomerycidae

Palaeomerycidae is an extinct family of ruminants , probably ancestral to deer and musk deer...

, endemic to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 from the early Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 epoch (Hemingfordian stage) 20.6—16.3 Ma, existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

Aletomeryx was named by Lull (1920). It is the type genus of Aletomerycinae, Aletomerycini. It was assigned to Dromomerycidae by Lull (1920) and Janis and Manning (1998); and to Aletomerycini by Prothero and Liter (2007).

Fossil distribution

Fossils have been recovered from the Midway Site in Florida, Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Boron, California

Boron, California

Boron is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, United States. Boron is located east-southeast of Castle Butte, at an elevation of 2467 feet . The population was 2,253 at the 2010 census, up from 2,025 at the 2000 census...

, and several sites in Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

 and Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

.