# @nationalparkservice on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C6zBf9BPPQj
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/21019793-nationalparkservice-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/aa7956d3d5.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-05-10T18:00:42.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** National Park Service (@nationalparkservice) — https://gondola.cc/nationalparkservice

## Caption

I’ve got big eyes, and I cannot lie! For real, doe. 

A new genus of a deer with big eyes and no horns that is roughly the size of a house cat has been discovered at badlandsnps in South Dakota.

A team of researchers from the park, the American Museum of Natural History, and California State Polytechnic University described the fossil remains, including the first and only known skull of the deer which was discovered at Badlands in 2016. The new deer, Santuccimeryx (“Santucci’s ruminant”), was named after Vincent L. Santucci, the Senior Paleontologist and Paleontology Program Coordinator in the Geologic Resources Division of the National Park Service, to honor his history with and advocacy for the paleontology program at the park.

Santuccimeryx belongs to the extinct family Leptomerycidae, and its skull shares features of both the Oligocene genus Leptomeryx and the Miocene genus Pseudoparablastomeryx, two animals that are nearly 10 million years apart in time. The family Leptomerycidae were about the size of house cats and lived in North America from the late-middle Eocene (about 41 million years ago) to the end of the middle Miocene (about 11 million years ago). They are considered close relatives to the living chevrotains, or mouse deer, from the tropical forests of central and western Africa and Southeast Asia. 

Images: Paleoartistic reconstruction of the newly named genus Santuccimeryx elissae. Illustration by Benji Paysnoe. Closeup of fossilized skull. 

#fossil #fossilfriday #science #nationalparks #badlands #deer #discover

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 23,777
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- **Comments:** 77

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| National Park Service | @nationalparkservice | https://gondola.cc/nationalparkservice | Government Organization |

## Tags

badlands, science, deer, discover, nationalparks, fossilfriday, fossil

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