Antidorcas marsupialis
The springbok or springbuck is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole living member of the genus Antidorcas, this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1780. Three subspecies are identified. A slender, long-legged antelope, the springbok reaches 71 to 86 cm at the shoulder and weighs between 27 and 42 kg. Both sexes have a pair of black, 35 to 50 cm long horns that curve backwards. The springbok is characterised by a white face, a dark stripe running from the eyes to the mouth, a light brown coat marked by a reddish-brown stripe that runs from the upper foreleg to the buttocks across the flanks like the Thomson's gazelle, and a white rump flap.

Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- springbokPBDB
- Sits inside
- AntidorcasPBDB
- Diet
- grazer, browserPBDB, for Bovidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Bovidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
- Mass
- 37 kgWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 2.5 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.
31 occurrences of Antidorcas marsupialis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
31 occurrences- Miocene3%
- Pliocene2%
- Pleistocene63%
- Holocene32%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
3 formations
- Swartkrans Formation · Transvaal Group5
- Rietputs Formation1
- Varswater Formation1
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The named rock units Antidorcas marsupialis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Antidorcas marsupialis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Antidorcas marsupialis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
252 taxa- Raphicerus campestris19 sites
- Lupulella mesomelas16 sites
- Taurotragus oryx16 sites
- Alcelaphus buselaphus14 sites
- Bovidae14 sites
- Connochaetes gnou14 sites
- Procavia capensis14 sites
- Equus capensis13 sites
- Hystrix africaeaustralis13 sites
- Parahyaena brunnea13 sites
- Redunca arundinum13 sites
- Hippopotamus amphibius12 sites
- Syncerus caffer12 sites
- Tragelaphus strepsiceros12 sites
- Oreotragus oreotragus11 sites
- Panthera leo11 sites
- Panthera pardus11 sites
- Damaliscus dorcas10 sites
- Equus quagga burchelli10 sites
- Felis lybica10 sites
- Leporidae10 sites
- Mellivora capensis10 sites
- Papio ursinus10 sites
- Phacochoerus aethiopicus10 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 31 sites for Antidorcas marsupialis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
22 references- Paleoenvironmental and Cultural Implications of Late Holocene Archaeological Faunas from the Orange Free State and North Central Cape Province, South Africa9
- Quaternary vertebrate fossil sites in the south-western Cape Province2
- Middle and later Stone Age large mammal and tortoise remains from Die Kelders Cave 1, Western Cape Province, South Africa1
- Paleoenvironmental and Human Behavioral Implications of the Boegoeberg 1 Late Pleistocene Hyena Den, Northern Cape Province, South Africa1
- The Swartkrans Palaeontological Research Project in perspective: results and conclusions1
- Swartkrans: A Cave's Chronicle of Early Man1
- Late Pleisticene Humans Remains from the Sea Harvest Site, Saldanha Bay, South Africa1
- Glimpses from Gondolin: A faunal analysis of a fossil site near Broederstroom, Transvaal, South Africa1
- Dating, Archaeology and Human Fossils from the Middle Stone Age Levels of Die Kelders, South Africa1
- Environmental, Ecological and Paleoanthropological Implications of the Late Pleistocene Mammalian Fauna from Equus Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa1
- The Prehistory of Stone Age Herders in the Cape Province of South Africa1
- Later Stone Age Faunal Samples from Heuningneskrans Shelter (Transvaal) and Leopard's Hill Cave (Zambia)1
Each of the 31 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 10 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Antidorcas marsupialis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Giles Laurent
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Springbok”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itAntidorcas through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zimmerman 1780