What do the " Star Wars " franchise and prehistoric , giraffe - like creatures have in common ? A newly discovered fogey of a fanged , three - horned herbivore that rove the cardinal Cuenca province of Spain 15 million years ago has been namedXenokeryx amidalae , fundamentally meaning “ strange horn of Amidala . ” Its particularly unusual head ornamentation , according to the authors of thePLOS ONEstudy , resemble the headdress of a fictional monarch in the bona fide film series .
One adult and two puerile fogy were found in noteworthy condition , reserve the researchers to reconstruct a relatively utter picture of these fauna and the ancient surroundings they lived in . palaeontologist Israel Sanchez of the National Museum of Natural story in Madrid and direct author of the sketch , said toReutersthat the shape of the male person ’s horn was “ extremely similar to one of the coif thatAmidalashows off in ' Star Wars’Episode 1when she is the queen of her family planet Naboo . ”
Roughly the size of a modern cervid , X. amidalaelived in a warm , grassland environment during the Miocene period ( 23 to 5.3 million years ago ) , alongside elephant ancestors , ancient horses and crocodiles , along with so - call “ bear - dogs , ” another extinct grouping of large , fearsome predators . The males possess atriple - horned head , with the cardinal horn fan out into a symmetrical T - shaped decoration . peculiarly , although it was a herbivore , the male also featured saber - like fang . The females had neither , and looked decidedly less strange .
The horns were likely used forbutting purposes , much in the same way innovative , manlike antelope use their trump for fight in ritualistic mating show . Although shrill , large canine tooth are normally associated with carnivorous eating habit , paleontologists speculate that these teeth were also used for scrap assort with married person selection .
paradigm reference : The central tusk appendages of X. amidale . Ilich Sanchez et al./PLOS ONE
In fiat to shed some light on its evolutionary line of descent , a series of analysis comparing its physical characteristics to similar species were deal . The feature it has that are also found in both closely connect metal money and their presumed common root – physical traits acknowledge assynapomorphies – were name , and computer programs were used to calculate its most probable position on the evolutionary tree .
This freaky animal belonged to the Palaeomerycidae , an out family ofruminants , mammalian with specialized tummy that ferment food prior to digestion , much like the ones used by contemporaneous cattle . This home lived for 50 million twelvemonth , was wide dispersed across the globe , and all member species have one branch appendage on their head ; they are likely to be the ancestors of innovative deer .
X. amidalaeitself is most nearly related to modern giraffes and the okapi , agiraffe - similar creature resemble a zebra , both of which are found in Africa . The detail continue by this collection of fossils was so exquisite that the research worker could confidently say where the entire Palaeomerycidae household fits in the larger grouping of ruminants .
“ It is foreign , it posed a good [ evolutionary story ] problem , it is fun to retrace and it is a windowpane to the marvels of the past times , ” Sanchez take note . “ In this case , being a aliveness - long ' Star Wars ' fan , it was large to mix my two passions . ”
