Living Fossil Recovers In Arizona

Few realize that the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is a Pleistocene survivor, a relict from the Ice Ages. It is a unique species and the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae. The pronghorn was discovered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, in what today is South Dakota.

For one small population, the endangered subspecies Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis), occurring only in Arizona and Mexico, their dying population went from almost 140 animals to 21 pronghorns during the drought of 2002. Now the numbers have moved above 100, at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona.

See the article, “Deer-Like Animal Rebounds in Arizona”, for more details. The headline, btw, is terrible. Pronghorns are far from “deer-like.” And they are not antelopes, despite sometimes being called “pronghorn antelopes.” They are a very distinctive and ancient species.

Pronghorns are second only to the cheetah as far as being the world’s fastest land mammal.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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