Tag: Oldupai

Thaleroceros radiciformis, Lower – Middle Pleistocene, East Africa

This antelope is probably a member of the reedbuck-relatives (Reduncini). This is supposed on account of the direction of the horns and the presence of a second pair of horns. This feature is sometimes visible in modern reedbucks. According to Prof. Dr. Hans Reck (1886-1937), who described the fossil, this second pair of horns were not covered by keratin. Because of the scarce remains, which show not much more than the impressive horns, its systematic position remains unclear.

Coloured pencil, 2020

32 x 24 cm

Parmularius maasaicus (Bovidae); Pleistocene, East Africa

A medium-sized alcelaphine which was only found at Olduvai Gorge. I could be an ancestor of the extant hartebeests (Alcelaphus). It was named in honor of the Maasai people who live in the Olduvai Gorge area.

Coloured pencil, 2018

30 x 24 cm

Megalotragus kattwinkeli (Bovidae), Pleistocene, East Africa

M. kattwinkeli is with expected 250 kg one of the biggest alcelaphines and closely related to the modern wildebeest. The horn cores vary a lot in this species, from a more compressed type with their tips curving inwards in smaller specimens to a more elongated type in bigger individuals. There is also a tendency to a domed skull with hollows, but not as distinct like that in Megalotragus atopocranion. The locality of M. kattwinkeli is the famous Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania. Here it occured with Paranthropus boiseiHomo habilis and Homo erectus. It was named after the German paleontologist and neurologist Wilhelm Kattwinkel (1866 – 1935).

Coloured pencil, 2018

30 x 24 cm

Abschied von Marcus Burkhardt

Alles was schön ist, bleibt auch schön,
auch wenn es welkt.
Und unsere Liebe bleibt Liebe,
auch wenn wir sterben.
Maxim Gorki

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