THE SUPPOSED OCCURRENCE OF AN ASIATIC GOAT- 

 ANTELOPE IN THE PLEISTOCENE OF 

 COLORADO 



By GERRIT S. MILLER, JR. 



curator, divisiox of mammals, u. s. national museum 

 (With Two Plates) 



In the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. ii, pp. 

 610-612, pi. 57, August 10, 1900, Mr. F. W. Cragin described and 

 figured the right humerus and right metacarpal of a " Goat-antelope 

 from the Cave Fauna of Pike's Peak Region." He proposed for this 

 animal the new name Neinorhoedus palmeri, and concluded that the 

 discovery of the two leg bones extended the former range of the 

 Asiatic genus Ncemorhedus to Colorado. Furthermore he reasoned 

 that: 



If the range of the Pike's Peak Capricorn corresponded nearly with that of "the 

 Himalayan, and the cave of the capricorn-eating carnivore was conveniently 

 located within the zone of the greatest abundance of the quarry — 5,000 to 6,000 

 feet above sea level — the Rocky Mountain plateau must have stood something 

 like one or two thousand feet lower in its Capricorn epoch than today, as the 

 present elevation of the cave approaches 7,000 feet ; and as the two conditions 

 above predicated are those most likely to have prevailed, it seems quite probable 

 that Nemorhoedus, as an element of the Xorth American fauna, belonged to 

 the Champlain phase of the Glacial epoch. 



Apparently no one has yet submitted these findings to critical ex- 

 amination. Hay (The Pleistocene of the Middle Region of North 

 America and Its Vertebrated Animals, 1924, pp. 144, 273, 275) ac- 

 cepts the species as a genuine member of the Pleistocene fauna of 

 Colorado. 



The specimens of Nemorhoedus palmeri are now in the United 

 States National Museum. They were originally entered under the 

 number 8042, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, but they have now 

 received the number 255680 in the Division of [recent] Mammals. 

 A few months ago, at the request of ^Ir. E. R. Warren, these speci- 

 mens were examined by Dr. J. W. Gidley, who concluded that they are 

 geologically recent in origin and not of Pleistocene age. He therefore 

 asked me to compare them with the corresponding parts of such un- 

 gulates as now occur in the Rocky Mountain region. On doing this 



SMITHSONfAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 82, No. 14 



