Harrington's Mountain Goat (Oreamnos harringtoni) was a species of North American

North American

North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...

 caprid that resided in the Southwest of the continent during the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 epoch. A relative of the modern Mountain Goat

Mountain goat

The Mountain Goat , also known as the Rocky Mountain Goat, is a large-hoofed mammal found only in North America. Despite its vernacular name, it is not a member of Capra, the genus of true goats...

, which is the only existing species in the genus Oreamnos

Oreamnos

Oreamnos is a genus of North American caprines. The Mountain goat is the only living species. Until the end of the Pleistocene another species, Oreamnos harringtoni, was distributed to the south of the recent form....

, O. harringtoni became extinct around 11,000 B.C.

Fossil record

Harrington's Mountain Goat was first described in the 1930s by paleontologist Chester Stock. Stock based his initial description on finds of skull fragments and metapodial

Metapodial

Metapodials are long bones of the hand and feet which connect the digits to the centers. In humans, five are present in each hand and foot....

 bones from Smith Creek Cave in the Great Basin

Great Basin

The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...

 of Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

. In 1937 he authored a Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Science article titled "A new mountain goat from the Quaternary of Smith Creek Cave, Nevada." Later finds in Nevada, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...

 have included intact skulls, metapodials, keratinous horn sheaths, dung, hair, muscle and ligament.

Characteristics

Harrington's Mountain Goat was smaller than today's Mountain Goats, and had a longer, narrower face accompanied by thinner, smaller horns. Dung finds suggest that the goats frequented caves in the Grand Canyon during spring and possibly late winter and early summer. Their diet seems to have consisted of both grasses and browsing of conifers such as spruce

Spruce

A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

, Douglas Fir, limber pine

Limber Pine

The Limber Pine, Pinus flexilis, is a species of pine tree-the family Pinaceae that occurs in the mountains of the Western United States, Mexico, and Canada. It is also called Southwestern White Pine and Rocky Mountain White Pine...

, and water birch.

Extinction

Harrington's Mountain Goat existed for at least 19,000 years prior to disappearing around 11,000 BC. The extinction is known to have coincided with the disappearance of at least 25 genera of land mammals, such as the Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis), and the arrival of Clovis

Clovis culture

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that first appears 11,500 RCYBP , at the end of the last glacial period, characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools...

hunters in the region.