Prolibytherium

Taxobox
name = "Prolibytherium"
fossil_range = Early Miocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Artiodactyla
familia = Climacoceratidae
genus = "Prolibytherium"

"Prolibytherium" ("Before Libya's Beast") is an extinct artiodactyl ungulate native to Early Miocene Africa.

The 1.80 m (6 ft) long creature was related to the modern giraffe and okapi. Unlike these, however, "Prolibytherium" had a set of large, leaf-shaped ossicones with a width of 35 cm (1 ft 2 in). These were probably used for display and fights, much like the antlers of a deer.

It was once regarded as a giraffid. Namely, it was once regarded as the ancestral form of the African species of "Sivatherium" ("S. maurusium"), when it was originally described as "Libytherium"." "Prolibytherium" is now regarded as a climacoceratid, due to the formation of its wide, palmate ossicones.