Extinct family of mammals
Menelikia is a genus of extinct Artiodactyl mammals, belonging to the bovids. It lived from the middle Pliocene to the middle Pleistocene (circa 4.1 - 1.4 million years ago) and its fossils are found in East Africa.
Description.
This animal was likely similar to the contemporary "Kobus ellipsiprymnus" or "Kobus megaceros". It was a medium-to-large sized antelope.
Classification.
The genus "Menelikia" was coined by Arambourg in 1941 on the basis of fossil finds in the east Africa Plio-Pleistocene. The type specimen for "Menelikia lyrocera" lived between 3.4 and 1.4 million years ago. The species "M. leakeyi", described in 1991, is slightly older (4.1 - 2.5 million years old). "Menelikia" is a part of the group Reduncini, which are African bovids with numerous species of antelopes that have semiaquatic lifestyles. They are currently confined to Africa but in the past have had wider ranges (for example "Sivacobus").
Paleobiology.
In general "Menelikia" possessed characteristics of a mixed-feeding browser.