Prolibytherium is an extinct artiodactyl ungulate

Ungulate

Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. They make up several orders of mammals, of which six to eight survive...

 native to 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...

 North Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

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The 1.80 m (6 ft) long creature was related to the modern giraffe

Giraffe

The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...

 and okapi

Okapi

The okapi , Okapia johnstoni, is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Central Africa...

. Unlike these, however, Prolibytherium had a set of large, leaf

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

-shaped ossicone

Ossicone

Ossicones are horn-like protuberances on the heads of giraffes, male okapis, and their extinct relatives, such as Sivatherium, and the climacoceratids, such as Climacoceras. Only giraffids have true ossicones...

s with a width of 35 cm (1 ft 2 in). These were probably used for display and fights, much like the antler

Antler

Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...

s of a deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

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It was once regarded as a giraffid

Giraffidae

The giraffids are ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids. The biological family Giraffidae, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, contains only two living members, the giraffe and the okapi. Both are confined to sub-saharan Africa: the...

. Specifically, it was once regarded as the ancestral form of the African species of Sivatherium

Sivatherium

Sivatherium ' is an extinct genus of giraffid that ranged throughout Africa to Southern Asia . The African species, S...

(S. maurusium), when it was originally described as "Libytherium." Prolibytherium is now regarded as a climacoceratid

Climacoceratidae

Climacoceratidae is a family of superficially deer-like artiodactyl ungulates that were restricted to the Miocene of Africa. They are close to the ancestry of giraffes, with some genera, such as Prolibytherium, having originally identified as being giraffes.The climacoceratids, namely, of what is...

, due to the formation of its wide, palmate ossicone

Ossicone

Ossicones are horn-like protuberances on the heads of giraffes, male okapis, and their extinct relatives, such as Sivatherium, and the climacoceratids, such as Climacoceras. Only giraffids have true ossicones...

s.