Why Did These Ancient Gophers Have Horns?
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 Published On Sep 15, 2020

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These odd rodents belong to a genus known as Ceratogaulus, but they’re more commonly called horned gophers, because, you guessed it, they had horns. And it turns out the horns probably had a purpose - one that rodents would likely benefit from today.

Samantha Hopkins’ 2005 paper on Ceratogaulus with figures featured in this episode (Thanks, Samantha!): https://royalsocietypublishing.org/do...

Thanks to Ceri Thomas (https://nixillustration.com), Lucas Lima (https://252mya.com/gallery/lucas-lima), R. Bruce Horsfall, and Roman Uchytel for allowing us to use their wonderful paleoart in this episode.

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios:    / pbsdigitalstudios  

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References: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-...

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