Photo of the Day #52: Blastocerus

I had some amount of difficulty finding information about this animal, Blastocerus, because the plaque describing it at the AMNH called it "Blastoceros" and that was the name I attempted to look up. Once I learned of the mistake, though, much more information became available, although it was not quite what I expected. Many of the fossils I photograph and share here are of extinct representatives of animals, but Blastocerus is still around and the species Blastocerus dichotomus is a South American animal known as the Marsh Deer. Previously this deer ranged all over the South American continent but today it is threatened, living only in small patches around marshes and lagoons in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. Despite this habitat preference, however, the Marsh Deer doesn't seem to be as well adapted to a wet habitat as another artiodactyl (albiet a bovid rather than a cervid) from Botswana, the Lechwe (Kobus leche).