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| Qilin new genus Qilin tungurensis Colbert, 1936. Artist reconstructions of Qilin tungurensis: An adult male (right) and younger males (middle and left) with less developed ossicones. Note females did not have ossicones in the early-middle Miocene. in Wang, Solounias, Hou, Li et Tomida, 2025. Art by Ville Sinkkonen. |
Abstract
The classic Middle Miocene Wolf Camp locality discovered in 1930 by the Third Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History has been long known to produce an extinct giraffe, Palaeotragus tungurensis Colbert, 1936. Its dental and limb morphology offers tantalizing clues to a close relationship to the living giraffe, Giraffa. Its ossicone, a key part of the giraffe anatomy, is unknown since its initial description. Our discovery, in 2011, of an almost perfectly preserved ossicone from Wolf Camp thus fills this void and is described herein. Novel morphology of the ossicone, unlike any known so far, warrants a new generic name, Qilin, and Q. tungurensis adds important evidence that this Middle Miocene record from Inner Mongolia represents a key taxon in the evolution of the subfamily Giraffinae. Ossicone morphology is fundamentally similar to that of living Giraffa as well as members of Bohlinini. Dentally, Q. tungurensis also strongly supports its membership within Bohlinini with a unique shared derived character of P2-3 para- and metastyles bending inward to mesostyle. Q. tungurensis possesses a slender limb and a modestly deep trough on the posterior surface of the metacarpals that also suggest membership in Bohlinini. Combined with knowledge about its dental and limb morphology, the new Wolf Camp ossicone indicates an important stage of giraffine evolution, and contributes to a better understanding of its chronology and zoogeography.
Systematic paleontology
Order Artiodactyla Owen, 1848
Suborder Ruminantia Scopoli, 1777
Infraorder Pecora Linnaeus, 1758
Superfamily Giraffoidea Gray, 1821
Family Giraffidae Gray, 1821
Subfamily Giraffinae Gray, 1821
Included tribes: Giraffini Gray, 1821 (living giraffe and its relatives) and extinct Bohlinini Solounias, 2007.
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| Qilin tungurensis, IVPP V 33851, right juvenile male ossicone from IVPP locality IM1118, lower part of Wolf Camp section. (A) right lateral view; (B) medial view, black arrows indicating natural break before the ossicones were glued back together (see D); (C) ventral (proximal) view; and (D) dorsal view before the upper shaft was glued (black arrows in A and B showing location of the break), showing oval cross-section at mid shaft. |
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| Artist reconstructions of Qilin tungurensis: An adult male (right) and younger males (middle and left) with less developed ossicones. Note females did not have ossicones in the early-middle Miocene. Art by Ville Sinkkonen. |
Qilin new genus
Type species: Palaeotragus tungurensis Colbert, 1936.
Included species: Type species and an undescribed species from the Siwaliks of Pakistan [Solounias & Danowitz, 2025].
Diagnosis: Thin and slender metacarpal with a deep posterior groove; premolar parastyles and metastyles prominent and bending inward; ossicone with an upright shaft, curving inward (medially), expanded tip and a slight constriction below the tip, and a greatly expanded posterior flange with surface bumps.
Etymology: Qilin, Chinese Pinyin spelling for 麒麟, a mythical creature in ancient Chinese texts with a deer body, cow tail, and single (or paired) antler with fleshy tip; Qilin was invoked as an approximate transliteration for Somali word “geri” for giraffe when the Ming dynasty maritime expedition to Africa brought two giraffes to Beijing in 1414 A.D. 麒麟 as giraffe is still used in Korean Hanja and Japanese Kanji writing systems, as well as in early Chinese scientific literatures as a common name for “giraffe deer family” (麒麟鹿科), such as in the Chinese abstract of Bohlin [Bohlin, 1927].
Xiaoming Wang, Nikos Solounias, Su-kuan Hou, Lu Li and Yukimitsu Tomida. 2025. A New Giraffe Ossicone from Wolf Camp, Tunggur Formation, Inner Mongolia suggests A New Genus in Bohlinini (Artiodactyla, Giraffidae). PLoS One. 20(8): e0328405. DOI: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328405
